Reduce, reuse, recycle. 'Do more with less to minimize damage,' urge environmentalists. But, as this book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way production model—from cradle to grave. This model dates back to the Industrial Revolution and instantly turns a full ninety percent of the materials created to make durable goods into waste. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage nature? Why not take nature itself as a model? A tree produces thousands of flowers to create another tree. We don't consider such abundance wasteful; on the contrary, we regard it as safe, beautiful, and highly efficient. 'Waste is food' is the first principle outlined in the book. Products can be adapted to provide fuel for something new at the end of their life—as “biological nutrients” that are safely returned to the environment, or as “technical nutrients” that remain in closed loops of technological cycles.
In developing their principles for (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonagh and Michael Braungart make a viable case for change.