Close the loop darling!

In nature everything is cyclic…Carbon cycle, Nitrogen cycle, hydro cycle etc. All the inventions in the history have been inspired by lessons from nature whether it was aero planes (aero models were based on bird wings and body structures) or ships and submarines (fish structure). But when it comes to human consumption of resources, this basic principal of cyclic rotation of material flow was ignored and we ended up with anthropogenic mountains around our cities called landfills (calling them fills is a joke actually, seeing their height above ground, they should rather be called Hills instead of Fills) .We as human race are producing gigantic amounts of waste. Some of it is recycled but a lot is simply dumped, causing problems for people and the environment.

How and when in the history was this word “waste” coined?…I don’t know but it is a proof of our ignorance and laziness as human race. Nothing can be called waste .Actually we never really gave a thought to the fact that where these secondary resources needed to go to close this loop of material flow in manufacturing and consumption. So the first thing we need  to do is undo this word “waste”from all our policies and our lives.

It’s time we started closing the loop. Every product /industrial activity needs to close its loop otherwise it should not  be allowed to exist. Let me clarify this with some common examples; Like in sugar industry when we extract sugarcane juice, the left over fiber (bagasse) goes to paper industry. Molasses can be used to make liquor. So we can close the loops instead of wasting these useful secondary products. Fats from dairy industry go to soap industry or candle industry.

The environment clearance should not be accorded to any industry without the impact assessment based on complete Life cycle assessment. It implies that everyone in the whole chain of a product's life cycle, from cradle to grave, has a responsibility and a role to play, taking into account all the relevant impacts on the economy, the environment and the society.

In fact it’s time that instead of going through “cradle to grave study” for any product/industrial activity , we start believing in “Cradle to cradle theory” where every secondary resource(waste) finds a new cradle and nothing goes to grave(Landfill).

Recently visited a factory in Faridabad and they have these beautiful circular discs of high quality board(2inch dia) coming out as a waste @15000pcs a month being thrown away ….for someone to burn. I am looking for a cradle for these beautiful discs any takers with creative mind!!!