"Reduce, Reuse, Recyle - and Regulate"

Bill McDonough and Michael Branugart do an excellent job explaining the fallout's of societies take on environmentalism and sustainability. He takes the societal norm that doing a little can save a lot and twists it showing that approach is not entirely feasible without a change in the current system that relies on the every growing function of a linear economy. The authors state that currently products are manufactured and sold, with most of the resources used ending up in a landfill. Producers are aware but ignore the facts as long as profit is still continuing to flow. The authors state that not only do we have to reduce reuse and recycle, but the most important component is to regulate.

This chapter really caught my eye. I have held this viewpoint for a while. Overtime I began to realize that no matter how many plastic bottles you reuse or recycle, the same amount of resources are still being used over a longer period of time. As the authors state, "it only slows them down, allowing them to take place in smaller increments over a longer period of time." Detrimental environmental effects can still occur. However, it is difficult as we have seen, to push regulation on industry, as it is seen as a "design failure".

In order for new processes to be successful, a realization needs to occur that resources need to be thought of not as a necessity for one product, but as a means to create a multitude of different things. It is this shift that will change the cradle to grave mentality to one that goes from cradle to cradle. What is difficult to comprehend after reading this book is that many of this solutions suggested are so often ignored.