The Upcycle - McDonough & Braungart - Part 4

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

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 22

 January 22, 2017 

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

 Part 4 - Pages 183-217

Reading Time - 40 minutes

This is a book of hope - hope for the future, for our planet, for humanity. It inspired me even though I'm not a designer of anything, other than my backyard garden. But even there, I think now of the ways in which we could upcycle things.

For example, we salvage wooden pallets from the liquor store. Normally, we cut these up to burn as firewood in our fireplace. But what if we could find a way to cut the slats off the frames more efficiently. We'd have an endless supply of wood to use for our various building projects. It's one additional stage of life for the pallet.

Ultimately, the authors envision a world in which we can go from surviving to thriving. That we can make the world a better place than when we came into it. Which is one of the first lessons one learns when going into the woods. Pack it in and then pack it out (your garbage). But... if you see someone else's garbage, pack that out too. Making the world a better place. It can't just be governments and non-profits and environmental groups though. It has to be businesses and companies. They are the ones who can really make a difference. The question is... how to engage them to see that this can make their companies more profitable AND make the world a better place. Would be nice to have a win-win scenario!

Next Book

Almost Green - How I built an Eco-Shed

James Glave - 2008

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.

The Upcycle - McDonough and Braungart - Part 2

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

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 20

 January 20, 2017 

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

 Part 2 - Pages 53-119

Reading Time - 70 minutes

I love this book. Love it... It's such a sparkly book. These guys foresee a world in which regulations simply indicate that there is an opportunity for a redesign. We just have to identify the Need, have some Imagination and find the Materials.

For example... we all know incandescent light bulbs (the old ones) wasted a lot of energy. Then they designed CFL light bulbs... the curly ones. Not an Upcycle though cause CFLs have mercury in them. We're saving energy but polluting the environment with a highly toxic substance every time one of those ends up in the landfill. LED lights on the other hand... huge improvement over incandescent and CFL bulbs. The trick is... plan a clean product from the start, rather than cleaning up waste at the end. If we identify our values first... then we can start off on the right foot. If you don't... you end up creating bigger problems.

The EU countries want to use 20% sustainable energy by 2020. Some bright chipmunk decided that burning palm oil would be a good way for the EU to reach that goal. So, now the EU imports palm oil from Indonesia. Which means Indonesia is chopping down its native forests and planting palm oil trees by the thousands. Deforestation = increased erosion = less foliage = increased CO2 in the atmosphere. End result... worse for the atmosphere than what the EU has been doing. Humble apologies to all real mammalian chipmunks (but not the human ones).

If we're talking renewable energy then wind and solar are the ways to go. As the authors says "is changing to solar too big or are human invention and daring too small".

Back in 1992, there was a big conference in Germany that came up with the Hannover Principles for designing and creating the future. I present them here because they really spoke to me. There is hope.

The Hannover Principles (1992)

1. Insist on right of humanity and nature to coexist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable conditions.
2. Recognize Interdependence
3. Respect relationships between Spirit and Matter.
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems and their right to coexist.
5. Create safe objects of long-term value.
6. Eliminate the concept of waste.
7. Rely on natural energy flows.
8. Understand the limitations of design.
9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge.

I could sign on for that! One last note... which I need to ponder... The way to do this is NOT to berate and scold companies... but to encourage them.

The Upcycle - McDonough and Braungart - Part 1

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

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 19

 January 19, 2017 

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

 Part 1 - Pages xv-xvii, 1-49

Reading Time - 60 minutes

I actually wanted to read another book that these guys wrote - Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things - but... I couldn't find it in the library. So... I had to make do with this one. Here's the definition of an upcycle from the authors:

The goal of the upcycle is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world with clean air, water, soil and power - economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.

Now... that is a really nice change from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson! Makes me think that 50 years later... we have learned a few things and there is hope for the human race.

The basic idea is this... when we create something, we design them so that they can create more things, rather than just ending up in the landfill. Take for example... the pop can. A beautifully designed piece of aluminum that can be endlessly recycled and turned into other things. Now take the tetra pack... you know, like a juice box. Horribly designed. It has a layer of thin aluminum, some plastic and some paper. Trying to disentangle those from each other leads to very poor quality material. Not a great upcycle.

Cradle to Cradle - The Upcycle Chart

So often we are trying to minimize the negative impact of something - whether it's pollution or energy waste or whatever. The authors say... what if we took it even farther and rather than just reaching zero... that we design and create things that actually make the world a better place. So rather than just reducing the pollutants in water from a factory, we could actually make the water cleaner than when it entered the factory. Wouldn't that be cool??

And it can be economically viable... more than that... it can make companies even more money cause if they're not polluting the environment, they can save all sorts of bucks!

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 6

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 18

 January 18, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 6 - Pages 264-297, 357-363

Reading Time - 50 minutes

In some ways, reading this book is a bit like reading some ancient prophecy. In this section, she speaks of how insects are becoming resistant to chemicals. Try DDT one year, and it works for a year or two and then is ineffective. Then try another one, which also becomes ineffective. After a while, you just run out of chemicals to use. One of the reasons... insects reproduce so quickly that their resistance builds very quickly as well. This is kind of frightening when you're talking about insects that are disease vectors - like mosquito that carry malaria. Or the Tsetse Fly. Nowadays we read in the news about how cockroaches and bedbugs are getting harder and harder to eradicate due to their chemical resistance. Carson knew what she was talking about. One entomologist said "the resort to weapons such as insecticides to control it is a proof of insufficient knowledge and of an incapacity so to guide the processes of nature that brute force becomes necessary". In other words, rather than understanding the complexities of nature and finding a way to work with it, we invariably try to use brute force, which inevitably fails.

Finally, in the last chapter, Carson gives us some hope. There are biological solutions, such as irradiating male flies (to make them sterile) and then introducing them into the wild in large enough numbers that they out-compete the fertile males. It has worked in isolated geographical regions. Another method is where you find a bacteria that is specific to the annoying insect - e.g. Bacillus thuringiensis which can be used against a variety of bugs. Carson spoke specifically of the Gypsy Moth which made me wonder... Vancouver sprays for the Gypsy Moth... so what do they use? Well... I looked it up and they spray with Foray 48B:

"Foray 48B® is a water-based product containing a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis variety kurstaki (Btk). Btk is a bacterium found in soil. It is known to affect only caterpillars, such as the gypsy moth larvae, if it is ingested while they are feeding. In addition, Foray 48B® contains a number of inert (inactive) ingredients which improve the performance of the Btk. Many of these ingredients are approved food grade additives. No petroleum products are used.
Foray 48B® is not harmful to people, dogs, cats, fish, birds, reptiles, or insects such as honeybees, beetles or spiders. Btk pest control products have been registered for use in Canada for about 40 years. It is now the most widely used pest control product in the world." (HealthLink BC)

It is heartening to read that... although... we still have a long way to go. Railway companies, for example, still spray their right-of-ways along the train tracks with toxic chemicals that include, among other things, the same components as Agent Orange (the defoliant used in Vietnam).

I can't say that I found this book enjoyable although it was highly educational. A bitter-sweet pill to swallow. Some improvement in the last 50 years but a long way to go as well.

Next Book 
The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 5

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 17

 January 17, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 5 - Pages 219-261

Reading Time - 50 minutes

As you might expect, Carson makes the connection between pesticides (or rather biocides) and their carcinogenic effects. Their effect on the liver and other cells in the body can generate tumours. She does admit that the long-term effect of pesticides is, as yet, unknown. It could take decades before the effects will be seen. She points, specifically, to the exponential rise in childhood cancers like leukemia, a cancer which was virtually unknown in the early 1900s. My question would be... perhaps the doctors of the time just didn't recognize it back then? Hard to say. The idea that pesticides can influence an infant in the womb is kind of scary. Nowadays, though, it seems like common sense to recognize that whatever the mother ingests will make its way to the fetus at some point. Its effects will vary depending on the fetal stage of development. Another reason why it's hard to pin down cause and effect.

Carson devotes an entire chapter to the fact that insecticides are worse than useless. In killing all insects, both good and bad, most pesticides actually make the insect problem worse. Nature does a great job of keeping populations in check - through competition, food, climate and predator. When we tinker with that... things get off balance very quickly. She says "chemical control is like a treadmill" because once you start spraying, you can't stop. A great deal for chemical companies... many of whom support the research programs of entomologists (insect researchers).

It seems to me that we humans think we're pretty smart. We think we can fix things in nature, improve on nature. But we tinker with systems that we don't fully understand and therein lies the danger. While we might be able to tweak nature in one direction, what happens if that makes everything worse? Can we put it back the way we found it? It's almost like we are cavemen taking apart a machine. Sure, we can take it apart... but can we put it back together so that it works again? And what if that machine is what is keeping us alive? Nature is an extremely complex, multi-faceted, interconnected organism - which we tinker with at our peril.

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 4

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 16

 January 16, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 4 - Pages 155-216

Reading Time - 70 minutes

More sad news. Back in the 1950s, the US Department of Agriculture decided that it would be a good idea to eradicate the Gypsy Moth and the Fire Ant. It didn't go very well. Apparently, someone later said it was "ill advised, hastily conceived, poorly planned and a glaring example of riding roughshod over the responsibilities of other public and private agencies". Maybe the Department had extra cash floating around at the end of the fiscal year? But their multi-year spraying program did nothing to the Fire Ants or Gypsy Moths. In fact, that seems to be the case with most of these mass spraying stories. Spraying millions of acres to kill one species is just crazy. Particularly as the damage to farms, orchards and livestock is massive.

The author notes, however, that it's not just mass sprayings that are a problem but innumerable small-scale exposures over time - the cumulative effect of biocides in the environment and in human bodies. All of a sudden, I'm wondering what exactly is in bug dope and how long I've been using that stuff. Bug dope that dissolves varnish but is safe for human skin. Right...

Makes me wonder about store-bought veggies and fruits... especially things imported from Mexico or elsewhere in the world. If pesticides sit within the skin and outer leaves... we should really discard that stuff. But if we throw the peels into our compost bin... and then spread the compost over our garden... are we not poisoning our garden? Makes me wonder.

Ultimately, the answer would appear to be to use less (or no!) toxic chemicals and/or try non-chemical methods.

Beyond the garden though, the scarier thought is what happens to the human body after years of exposure to various biocides. We might not see results for decades and there may be no obvious cause/effect. Plus, individuals will have individual tolerances and reactions. But it does affect that liver and the nervous system... Right... I read those words and thought... what about the upsurge in depression in the last few decades. What about autism? What about Alzheimers? All these illnesses that have seen a marked upsurge in recent decades.

Oh... and in case that wasn't enough... all those pesticides will have an affect on our cells, affecting their ability to produce energy and function. Muck with a little cell and it might turn into a cancer cell. Or maybe it will cause infertility. Recently, there have been studies which suggest that the health of our gut bacteria has a direct impact on our physical and mental health. Depression may be linked to a wonky gut flora.

I'm thinking in a few hundred years, humanity, if it still has accurate history (thank you George Orwell), will look back on the 1900s and call it the Great Poisoning.