Reduce, reuse, recycle is what most environmentalists urge us to do to minimize our damaging footprints in the world today. BUT today's recycling is actually downcycling. High-quality steel is "recycled" by melting down with other automobile parts (incl. copper & paint), releasing harmful chemicals and resulting in a weaker less useful product. Same approach applies to paper and plastic. It only perpetuates the one-way "cradle to grave" manufacturing model generated by Industrial Revolution. Why can't we challenge ourselves to simply create products (wastes) that can cycle back to the system as nutrients (food). For example, design buildings (like trees) that produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water and create factories that produce effluents that are drinking water."Less is More" is just "Less Bad", therefore no good. And Instead of targeting zero waste, we should aim to produce 100% Good.
~cC - A Summary of "Cradle to Cradle"
