THE BIOLOGICAL METABOLISM

With the way consumers are these days it makes me question whether consumers even have the power to slow down their rate of consumption. This thought of mine makes me lean towards the biological metabolism, which creates substances that can be returned back into the biological cycle to be consumed by animals and microorganisms. “The idea is to compose these products of materials that can be tossed on the ground or compost heap to safely biodegrade after use—literally to be consumed” (Cradle to Cradle). Although I think the rate of consumption absolutely needs to slow down, whether it be by educating consumers so they are aware of the harm they are doing to the environment or the government implementing laws using biological nutrients can help consumers feel a little better about overconsumption. If this metabolism were implemented, packaging would decay over time and could be used as fertilizers. Even the deterioration of shoe soles would give back to the environment. Soaps and cleaning products made out of liquids would pass through the drain and end up in bodies of water sustaining the environment. An issue lies in what we would do concerning clothing; the idea right now is to combine cotton and PET however the synthetic dyes in PET contain questionable particles. As soon as this issue can be figured out, the biological metabolism could do wonders for our environment concerning sustainability.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

We’ve already acknowledged that there is problem in our world considering over consumption and natural resources. Now it is time to discuss what can we do to in order to help our environment.

Jane Benyus wrote an article Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature, and in the article she discusses a number of principles she felt would be very efficient. One concept I found interesting was Optimize rather than maximize. This spoke about how the United States produces waste so quickly and people no longer value quality. The world is all about quantity over quality, which the situation should be reverse. If companies took the extra time and effort to produce a quality product, consumption would be slowed down. However, we are seeing some changes, consumers are slowly starting to accept and purchase “factory refurbished” products such as computers or stereos. I think that this is a huge step for the world. I know that I go through cell phones at least one every two years and I always try to recycle them to proper locations but even doing that doesn’t mean that the cell phone is refurbished and put back on the market.

Another concept that really interested me was Shop Locally. This idea spoke about how our market strives to be global and a borderless economy. And this is so true, I mean when is the last time you have looked at a product and seen “Made in America”, I know I haven’t seen that in years. This competitive market doesn’t encourage us to adapt to our own environments. We need to be utilizing the resources that surround us instead of having to have something out of our reach. Fletcher in Sustainable Fashion and Textiles wrote about how the transportation process leaves a lot of harm to that country. For instance, the country that produces the product draws upon local resources and therefore results in local pollution.

These concepts are very vital in heading towards a sustainable ecosystem and need to considered for the future.

BIG IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE

It is inevitable that the world is headed in the direction of an ecological crisis with the way consumers use and abuse the Earth. Our actions now are affecting the world drastically and we need to take serious measures immediately in order to slow down the crisis. Consumers need to be educated from early on so that they know of the damage they are causing to the environment every time they run the washing machine or purchase unnecessary purchases.

When reading Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature by Janine Benyus there were many principles I thought could be very efficient if implemented correctly. The principle that she spoke about “Don’t Draw Down Resources” was the one that hit home the most with me. Benyus wrote, “The best predator, for instance, is the one that doesn’t completely eliminate its prey” and I could not agree more (Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature). We are using up resources so quickly that there is no time to replenish them.  The law of sustainability states that as well when speaking about nonrenewable resources, at the same rate of which were are using nonrenewable resources, we should be developing substitutes. Benyus believes that one of the major faults was to introduce the use of nonrenewable resources and I have to agree with her because at the rate we are using these resources leaves no excuse why we are not finding substitutes so that we can slow this process down. And the same goes for renewable resources, we need to either be finding substitutes or we have got to lessen the amount we are using because we leave no amount of time to let this resources replenish.

Another principle that I thought could be very practical was “Use Waste as a Resource”. This proposition states “as a system puts on more biomass, it needs more recycling loops to keep it from collapsing” (Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature). She spoke about a town, Kalundborg, Denmark and their model of an ecopark. “Four companies are collocated, and all of them are linked, dependent on one another for resources or energy (Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature). For instance one power company piped some of its waste steam to two other companies which helped power their engines. There was also another pipeline leading to the town with the rest of the waste steam, which powered the town’s heat, terminating the need for oil furnaces. Although I think this would take years and years to implement into our society I think that this could be one of the biggest measures in making our world sustainable.

There are so many options we have in order to help our environment but it all starts with encouraging people to WANT to make a change.