Upsizing: The Road to Zero Emissions.
by Gunter Pauli.
ISBN-13: 9781874719182
Over the past few years, the term zero emissions has come to define a growing trend in manufacturing. More and more business models are beginning to implement a reuse strategy into their plan. The waste that is produced on-site is woven back into the production process as a feedstock, or it is sold to another business to use in their manufacturing or production process. This book suggests the revolutionary idea of turning trash into cash. Many industries produce waste of all sorts; there is manure, CO2, solid waste, agricultural waste, …you get the picture, the list goes on and on. These items were considered useless by business in the past and were discarded. In fact, businesses pay money to have waste shipped ‘away’, but all of that is changing. Waste management and landfill operators are now sitting on a goldmine of opportunity; so are cattle farmers, waste treatment plants, and industrial polluters. These waste streams can be reused to produce other usable materials and gasses, and they already are. The zero-waste industry is already up and running at today’s landfills and water treatment facilities, even on some industrial livestock farms. The author of this book is also the founder of the Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI), which ‘examines how the adoption of the Zero Emissions concept not only radically reduces pollution and waste but can contribute significantly to the generation of income and jobs, specifically for those that need them most, the rural poor in less developed countries’.
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Zero Waste is an evolved concept; it is not an easy term to understand at first because it involves a paradigm shift in the way we think about virtually everything. What is trash? What do we throw away? What happens to ‘it’ once it is ‘away’?In the beginning, so to speak, garbage was collected and brought to landfills where it was buried and left to rot. This level of operation seemed sustainable until human population figures in the twentieth century grew beyond the capacity of the landfills to receive all of society’s garbage. So, recycling programs sprang up all over and certain materials were plucked from the garbage and thrown back into the manufacturing stream as a feedstock for another product; a second life, so to speak. This method of operation really got people thinking about redesigning our consumption cycles to be more in line with natural systems.
Since the recycling movement began in the later half of the twentieth century, global population has exploded and the recycling movement has evolved into the zero waste initiative. If nature can do it, then so can human society. In fact, society can not sustain itself without it.
Zero waste is essentially recycling on steroids. Under zero-waste principles, products are designed for reuse. That’s right, the product is designed for disassembly and recycling purposes so that when it reaches the end of its use-cycle, it can be disassembled easily and re-entered back into the manufacturing process. Think about what this can do for the appliance and electronic industries alone. Computers are only beginning to allow us the opportunity to design products in a virtual world for optimal environmental efficiency before they are ever created and run ‘pilot’ runs in virtual worlds. Zero waste is not a company or an industry; it is a theory that tries to redefine how we manufacture, distribute, and use everyday products from televisions to hand soap.
Many businesses and organizations are beginning to form alliances and partnerships in order to clean up the production process. Landfill operators are beginning to team-up with utilities and ethanol refiners in order to harvest the methane and solid waste that is otherwise just sitting in the garbage.
What about all of that cow manure and other agricultural waste? Well, ethanol refiners not only can process cow manure and biomass, but can also turn human waste into clean burning fuel for our cars and generators. We don’t have to use food for ethanol production; our waste is sufficient.
What these types of businesses are learning early on is that waste can be a valuable feedstock. Through the redesign of the processes they use and the products they produce, businesses can create a more profitable bottom line by not wasting materials and energy. Zero waste is not only sustainable; it is profitable.
In nature there is no such thing as waste; all matter is reused and recycled back into the fabric of life. Most processes are simple; photosynthesis involves sunlight to break apart water and carbon dioxide and rearrange it into oxygen and energy. The forces in nature have the potential to supercede all of our needs in terms of energy consumption. If only we learned how to harness the power of the natural world, we would never have to drill or mine another fossil fuel. Until that day arrives, we need to learn how to take more of our cues from the simple processes of nature’s beauty.
The linear model of producing waste, where waste accumulates in landfills and where products are designed simply for consumption, is not natural. In the natural world, one organism’s waste is another organism’s food. Why would our industrial processes violate the natural laws upon which all of its other feedstocks are based?
The paradigm shift we are talking about is the move from linear thinking to cyclical thinking. Instead of designing products for consumption and disposal, why not design them for reuse and durability? This simple change in the way we produce goods will allow our current economic systems to sustain itself. In the long-term, zero waste principles are the only way human society can sustain their projected growth in global population. Without waste recycling of some kind, humans will poison themselves out of living space.
Right now, landfill waste emits something like the equivalent of one-fifth of all of the coal burned in U.S. power plants. When organic matter decomposes, it releases methane gas, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Why let a gas that potent go to waste? To harvest this waste gas and process it into a clean burning natural gas that can be burned to generate electricity is a potent example of how a waste product can be turned into a commodity.
Another term for the philosophy of zero waste is called cradle to cradle thinking. Under this way of thinking, products are designed for use from their conception, through their ends, and into the life of another product. It is all very Buddhist in its reflection of product reincarnation, but it has the real potential to not only create capital where there formerly was none, but also clean up the environment in the process.
The sad state of the world is that we give incentives to industries that harvest virgin resources. Added to that, our air, water, and soil are polluted everyday by these same companies dumping their waste into the environment, essentially burdening the taxpayer twice in order to have their own future compromised by some short-sighted politician acting on behalf of these industries…but, hopefully, we will continue to learn from our mistakes.
Waste-to-energy offers investors excellent opportunities for growth in the future. The industry already has an inconceivable feedstock in the nation’s landfills, not to mention the dairy farms and wastewater treatment facilities. The consistency of feedstock is already established and the technology for processing it is nearing utility-scale. Without a doubt, cellulosic ethanol is part of the zero waste solution, as is capturing landfill gas.
While the concept of initially viewing garbage as a valuable resource may require some fancy thinking, the concept by itself is very simple. The math is even simpler. More people will inevitably produce more waste, and our current global levels of waste are choking out the life on this planet. If we do not make bold moves toward producing less waste, we will place the balance of life on earth in jeopardy. It is up to us to make the bold decision, and trust that society will come around to reward our initial investment.
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International Sustainable Development Foundation
www.isdf.org
ISDF tries to imagine a world where communities and nature thrive in harmony. The ISDF currently focuses on three initiatives: The Zero Waste Alliance, The Green Electronics Council, and The China U.S. Center for Sustainable Development. All three of these initiatives try to implement sustainable practices on a local level. Sustainability knows no borders, so ISDF operates with governments, businesses, universities, research institutions, and non-governmental organizations from all over the world. Designing mechanical systems around natural principle makes more sense than the other way around.
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