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(More customer reviews)I confess my excitement about this book because it goes much further than any to date in its prescription for long-term sustainability. This book covers an area of sustainability that has not been addressed by many, with the exception of Cradle to Cradle, in that it distinguishes sustainability from delayed resource depletion. Recycle Everything is unique however, because it is a play book that defines the systems, processes, roles and challenges to be met to achieve long-term sustainability. I believe this book is a must-read for anyone interested in sustainability and green business practices.
Recycle Everything throws down the gauntlet on the current unsustainable production system that supplies all the goods to the economy. This system consumes resources until they are exhausted and for this reason cannot be sustainable. The book asserts that efforts such as life cycle assessment and similar methods only delay the inevitable, an economic decline. The book goes on to illustrate and provide examples of a cyclical system that retains within itself all the materials used in production. The cyclical system is called a "system for material sustainability", which circulates goods or their constituent materials among several roles including the manufacturer, consumer, disassembler, materials re-processor and others. The system is a closed system that eliminates extraction of new materials and their subsequent disposal.
The book is predicated on the notion that, for the manufacturing industry, resource depletion is a more urgent motivation to become sustainable than protection of the environment. The author discusses reasons to be concerned about approaching material scarcity and recommends closer scrutiny of the materials used in production and the issues related to their availability. The book redefines sustainability as the "ability to continue human production and consumption indefinitely within the limitations of a finite Earth." The intent of the book is to make sustainability "operational" through its "systems for material sustainability".
Although the book focuses mainly on inorganic materials (e.g., metals, glass, plastics), organic materials (e.g., cotton, wood) used in such things as clothing, some kinds of furnishings and food waste are also accounted for. Organic materials pass through a phase of composting and return to field and forest to replenish the soil for the cultivation of more organic products. All of the systems, both organic and inorganic, are illustrated in the book.
The book raises the issue that the inorganic materials are created for a single use and due to their chemical composition, cannot be reused to make new products. These single-use materials must be replaced by materials that are "perpetually reusable," a term coined in the book. These new materials would be recovered and reused to manufacture new products, into the distant future. It remains to be seen whether this is achievable simply because all materials decay; however, it may be possible to reconstitute them in some way and return them to production. The author leaves these issues to research and development and to this end, she has begun an institute dedicated to engaging scientists in resolving them.
This book describes the processes used in the new sustainable systems in enough detail that those in manufacturing and related industries can actually apply them. There are no doubt issues that will emerge with the plan offered in this book however, I share the author's confidence in human ingenuity and believe that the issues can be resolved. This book offers real, practicable hope for sustainability and I highly recommend it.
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Can everything be recycled? Yes, but it's going to take imagination and innovation. Right now, we are taking what we want from the planet, using it, and throwing it away. It's a one-way street from resource to landfill. But if we think there can't be any other way, we are lacking imagination. Once a thing can be imagined, it can be engineered.The one-way street is not sustainable long-term. For this reason, we need to go beyond current methods that merely slow down the rate of consumption and reduce the amount of materials flowing through the system. We need a new system, a cyclical system because by its very nature, sustainability is cyclical. This book describes such a system. The system for material sustainability is a concept whereby materials move through production, consumption, and recovery in a never-ending cycle. The materials in the system are 100% recyclable. This system has no dependence on extraction of raw materials nor does it allow used materials to be discarded. Impossible? This book will show you how it can be done. It elaborates on the system, explains how it works and describes the areas of innovation that are needed to make it a reality. Written by an instructional design professional with a master's degree in Engineering and Technology Management and 10 years of experience working with manufacturing professionals from design to the factory floor. View a short presentation on the ideas in this book here (copy and paste this URL in your browser): slideshare.net/i4ms/introduction-to-systems-for-material-sustainability-how-to-recycle-everything
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