Chapter 14
Circular Materials, Products, and Packaging
IN THIS CHAPTER
Identifying how materials and products can be designed to be circular
Exploring the history behind planned obsolescence and disposable products
Investigating the future of shipping and packaging
We live in a world where doing “less bad” is not only accepted — it's even seen as “doing good.” You wouldn’t praise a thief for stealing less than they could have (“It’s okay — he only took the big bills!”), but for some reason, doing less bad has been prepped, polished, and presented as doing good. Transitioning from a linear economy, where less bad is a driving force, to a circular economy, where doing good is built in as an operational philosophy, requires planning. Waste can be eliminated (instead of reduced), products can be used much longer (rather than used once and disposed of), and environmental systems can be regenerated to provide services (instead of being harvested). But it takes planning.
Keeping products in use forever requires identifying why products are wasted to begin with and discovering alternative strategies. Who decided that waste was acceptable, anyway? Though some products are intended to fail ...
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