The Upcycle - McDonough and Braungart - Part 3

The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability -
Designing for Abundance by
William McDonough &
Michael Braungart

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 21

 January 21, 2017 

Book 4 - The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2013)

 Part 3 - Pages 123-180

Reading Time - 60 minutes

Our topic of today, or at least part of it, is Soil. I had heard about the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s when overenthusiastic tilling of soil and near drought conditions led to a crazy amount of soil being lost to the wind. What I didn't know was that 75% of the soil in the US has been lost - destroyed by monoculture, over-tilling and salinization (due to over irrigation). The authors argue that we can't keep taking out more than we put in. Which makes total, perfect sense.

They use the example of phosphate. Plants need phosphate to grow and normally it returns to the soil when the plant dies. But we tend to harvest plants and so the soil gets deplete in phosphate. So we add fertilizers but phosphate is hard to put back as it tends to bind very quickly with other elements. It then ends up out in the ocean creating algal blooms that benefit no-one.

So, here's their bright idea... let's upcycle sewage. It can be done! Toronto, for example, accepts diapers (full ones), kitty litter (normally a biohazard), soiled paper and feminine hygiene products. These things are composted for a good 7 months and then... voila... compost for gardens! In some cities, they harvest phosphate and nitrogen from sewage and sell it as slow-release fertilizer pellets. Makes sense, no? We've become so squeamish about our biological waste though... yet all it requires is safe and careful handling and it can be put to good use, rather than spewing all those beautiful nutrients out into the ocean.

They've got all sorts of cool ideas on how we could upcycle our waste. For example, plastic pop bottles, which are made from food-grade plastics are now recycled, batched with other plastics and turned into fleece. But that is really a downcycle because fleece can never again be turned into food-grade plastic. Why not keep the pop bottles in a separate stream so then can be recycled over and over again into new pop bottles rather than "end-of-the-line" garbage cans or speed bumps. Why not install roof-top gardens everywhere... as a way to insulate the building and filter the storm water run-off?

I do like this book but so much of what they are suggesting seems beyond the scope of the individual citizen. We're talking change on the level of companies and municipalities. I guess we could lobby for change, demand that stores take back their packaging for materials. Small steps... but a much more hopeful book than Silent Spring.