BEFORE2030 - A LIVABLE FUTURE For people, planet, and all life
RE-USE, REDUCE, RECYCLE, UPCYCLE, CLEAN-UP
“We must reduce our desire for excessive consumption, or all the rest with be unachievable – indeed, is meaningless.
This does not mean renouncing the benefits of labor-saving devices like refrigerators, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, air conditioning, and central heating, or the amusements offered by radio, film, television, and the internet. It means, rather, using and adapting, and when required limiting, such devices, according to the criterion of sustainability.” (From Utopianism for a Dying Planet, mentioned above).
The ‘criterion of sustainability,’ this phrase must become one of our future guideposts in the sustain-age that we are very late initiating.
Re-use: Repair it and continue to use. Take the materials from a thing and re-use them to repair or make something else.
Reduce: Do you need that thing, really? Can you conserve in your daily rounds without really feeling deprived. E.g., use cold water instead of hot, this saves you magnitudes of energy, saves water and helps the planet.
Recycle: We all know what this means, and in much of the world it’s a lie. Very few things are actually recycled on an industrial scale. However, if we re-use, reduce, and upcycle, the need to recycle is unnecessary.
Upcycle: To upcycle we take a material that has been used before and with an effort less than would be needed to make a thing from original material, it is made into something useful. Downcycling is when we might crush, heat or completely reform a material for other use, often resulting in a lot more energy use, which we want to avoid.
Clean-up: Human-caused pollutants and waste in the world are at a staggering level and only likely to increase. In the book, Limits to Growth, that runs computer simulations of the major human factors affecting the world, this is on the list that could negatively impact human existence. That’s why I put it in this section. We have to do clean-up way beyond a few super-fund sites, “the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites.” Everywhere has to be cleaned up, including the air we breath.
All this and more to save resources and reduce the waste load on our societies. There’s job reduction and creation here, with training in the new skills needed, and a major revolution in design. The threat to a circular economy, where raw materials can be used again and again, must be deflated by this rise in consciousness.
A great re-skilling will also be required – is Youtube up to it?
Further info:
“We must reduce our desire for excessive consumption, or all the rest with be unachievable – indeed, is meaningless.
This does not mean renouncing the benefits of labor-saving devices like refrigerators, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, air conditioning, and central heating, or the amusements offered by radio, film, television, and the internet. It means, rather, using and adapting, and when required limiting, such devices, according to the criterion of sustainability.” (From Utopianism for a Dying Planet, mentioned above).
The ‘criterion of sustainability,’ this phrase must become one of our future guideposts in the sustain-age that we are very late initiating.
Re-use: Repair it and continue to use. Take the materials from a thing and re-use them to repair or make something else.
Reduce: Do you need that thing, really? Can you conserve in your daily rounds without really feeling deprived. E.g., use cold water instead of hot, this saves you magnitudes of energy, saves water and helps the planet.
Recycle: We all know what this means, and in much of the world it’s a lie. Very few things are actually recycled on an industrial scale. However, if we re-use, reduce, and upcycle, the need to recycle is unnecessary.
Upcycle: To upcycle we take a material that has been used before and with an effort less than would be needed to make a thing from original material, it is made into something useful. Downcycling is when we might crush, heat or completely reform a material for other use, often resulting in a lot more energy use, which we want to avoid.
Clean-up: Human-caused pollutants and waste in the world are at a staggering level and only likely to increase. In the book, Limits to Growth, that runs computer simulations of the major human factors affecting the world, this is on the list that could negatively impact human existence. That’s why I put it in this section. We have to do clean-up way beyond a few super-fund sites, “the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites.” Everywhere has to be cleaned up, including the air we breath.
All this and more to save resources and reduce the waste load on our societies. There’s job reduction and creation here, with training in the new skills needed, and a major revolution in design. The threat to a circular economy, where raw materials can be used again and again, must be deflated by this rise in consciousness.
A great re-skilling will also be required – is Youtube up to it?
Further info: