Title Cradle to Cradle
Author William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Publisher North Point Press
Description
McDonough and Braungart explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. They can be conceived as “biological nutrients” that will easily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials and toxins. Or they can be “technical nutrients” that will continually circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles, rather than being “recycled” – really, downcycled – into low-grade materials and uses. Drawing on their experience in (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuse, McDonough and Braungart make an exciting and viable case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice, and show how anyone involved with making anything can begin to do so as well.