Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.William McDonough
William A. McDonough (b. 1951, Tokyo, Japan) is an American architect and founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, whose career is focused on and Michael Braungart Michael Braungart is a German chemist who advocates 'upcycling' not recycling, to minimize humanity's ecological footprint. Once a Greenpeace activist who lived in a tree as protest, he is now a respected industrial designer and professor of process engineering. Even if they've taken on new forms or have been reused, most recyclable products still end up in landfills. McDonough, an architect, and Braungart, a chemist, argue that the cradle-to-grave manufacturing model is inherently wasteful. Products should be designed so that once their original usefulness expires, they still have some purpose. A tree is a natural example, since its fallen leaves and blooms nourish nour·ish v. To provide with food or other substances necessary for sustaining life and growth. the soil around it. McDonough and Braungart say that designers should emulate this pattern to make products that completely eliminate waste. In fact, this book is printed on "synthetic paper." It's made of plastic resins and inorganic inorganic /in·or·gan·ic/ (in?or-gan´ik) 1. having no organs. 2. not of organic origin. in·or·gan·ic n. 1. fillers instead of wood pulp wood pulp: see paper. or cotton. It's a product that "can be broken down and circulated infinitely in industrial cycles," claim the authors. They espouse the benefits of such "eco-effectiveness" and offer other ideas for putting it into practice. North Point Pr, 2002, 193 p., paperback, $25.00. |
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