MemeMachineGo!

This Christian Science Monitor article discusses Cradle to Cradle, a new book promoting the very sensible idea that we design things differently, anticipating eventually disposing of them through recycling or composting.

"If humans are truly going to prosper, we will have to learn to imitate nature's highly effective cradle-to-cradle system of nutrient flow and metabolism, in which the very concept of 'waste' does not exist. To eliminate the concept of waste means to design things – products, packaging and systems – from the very beginning on the assumption that waste does not exist."

Packaging, they remind us, makes up 50 percent of garbage. Shampoo bottles, yogurt containers, and candy wrappers could be made of material that would biodegrade in the compost heap, becoming fertile soil. Products themselves should be reengineered so that everything that we buy, wear, and use can be either composted or disassembled for easy manufacture into new products.

Someday the human race is going to want all these resources we're dumping in landfills, and with all the toxins and methane around, retrieving them is going to be as dangerous a job as mining has ever been. Our descendants would be grateful for sound planning now. Okay, no they wouldn't, the damned ingrates, but they'll surely be complaining about what we're doing now if we don't change it.