The Cradle to Cradle Principle
Cradle to Cradle is a completely new concept whereat all base materials getting worked up in a product will be recycled up to 100%. That way materials can be saved in cycles like in nature. That contrasts with our hitherto linear waste management whereat just a part of a finished product is recyclable and where many materials can just be further processed in a less high grade product. C2C requires products to be designed newly from scratch because one has to think about later recycling and reusage yet when the product is designed and produced.
Climate change and the commencing dwindle of oil reserves are not the only problem of our century. We will run short of other raw materials as well. A change of view and the rethinking of processes need to start yet. Especially electronical devices require a lot of seldom substances. Besides this most of the conventionally produced goods contain highly toxical substances that can cause infertility, cancer and other serious deseases. This is not only valid for the various additives used in plastic synthetics but f.i. also for the textile industry. Furthermore flame resistants like used for brominating electrical devices are verifiably accumulating in the marine food chains. C2C-products must not contain any of such toxines because they would get enriched by the recycling process. Up to now ecological certificates just specify that certain known toxic substances are not contained within a product. In deed this can not verify that a product is safe.
Even though not all of these ideas are totally new their 100% consequence at the realization of true C2C products is. Amazingly this is already possible with many products without any significant loss in quality even today. However the fact is that these technologies are not applied on a larger scale. Airbus f.i. does without brominated flame resistants and has a replacement that is at least as good as this. This has the additional effect that there are no unhealthy evaporations by the seats so that they rather clean the air than to stress it. The following links show even more examples of C2C products. A consistent transformation towards a Cradle to Cradle product live cycle would widely free us from raw material imports and the political conflicts adhered to them. Then we could again consume to the top of our bents and we would not even cause damage to our environment by doing so.