Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

by William McDonough

Think about it: you may be referred to as a consumer, but there is very little that you actually consume—some food, some liquids. Everything else is designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it. But where is “away”? Of course, “away” does not really exist. “Away” has gone away.

the product itself contains on average only 5 percent of the raw materials involved in the process of making and delivering it.

To achieve their universal design solutions, manufacturers design for a worst-case scenario; they design a product for the worst possible circumstance, so that it will always operate with the same efficacy. This aim guarantees the largest possible market for a product. It also reveals human industry’s peculiar relationship to the natural world, since designing for the worst case at all times reflects the assumption that nature is the enemy.

The waste, pollution, crude products, and other negative effects that we have described are not the result of corporations doing something morally wrong. They are the consequence of outdated and unintelligent design.

Just because a material is recycled does not automatically make it ecologically benign, especially if it was not designed specifically for recycling. Blindly adopting superficial environmental approaches without fully understanding their effects can be no better—and perhaps even worse—than doing nothing.