When the Bough Breaks...

Revolutionising ‘Cradle to Grave’ manufacturing

Our linear economy is damaging our planet and impacting our health. An article in the news in June certainly grabbed our attention with its arresting headline that humans may inhale a ‘credit cards worth of plastic every week’. The results of a study were published in the Physics of Fluids scientific journal, where they found that due to the proportion of microplastics in the atmosphere, humans were inhaling plastic.

You may not know that every time plastic is recycled, the quality goes down. New material is added to improve the quality, but even the best plastic can only be recycled 2 – 3 times before it’s useless. It is a product designed to go to landfill.

This degradation of plastic, and its introduction to our environment, is what causes the proliferation of plastic in our atmosphere, and its entry into our bodies and our food chain. Plastic is only part of the problem; low-quality chemicals, products that can’t be fixed, and more, are all leading to a waste crisis, but these are all hallmarks of the linear economy. Things aren’t working.

The oft-mentioned alternative to the linear economy is the circular economy. The circular economy requires that we rethink our resources, and work more cooperatively with others outside our businesses to develop systems and products that use fewer chemicals, that can be reused easier, and cause a less negative impact on the world around us. It is estimated that

there is a potential $4.5tn in economic benefit accessible through the circular economy, not to mention the innumerable positive impact on places and people. However, despite the potential benefits of a circular economic model, only around 10% of our current economy is circular. Even fewer products and processes have been accredited as Cradle to Cradle.

As champions of sustainability, we have been interested in learning more about Cradle-to-Cradle design, how it can be used, what businesses are adopting it, and how it may impact the future of manufacturing.

Cradle-to-Cradle, also known as C2C certification, approaches product design that is based on the cycle of the natural world. In nature, things are born, they consume, they die, and they nourish others. In C2C design, materials are seen as nutrients circulating in a healthy, safe, life cycle. Materials would enrich environments before their components are recirculated back into the system.

Originally trademarked by McDonough Braungart, Design Chemistry Consultants, and based on a book of the same name published in 2002 by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, the certification was turned over to a non-profit, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, in 2012.

We encourage our members to look at the https://c2ccertified.org/ website to learn how you can incorporate these practices into your business, and perhaps even get certified.

The Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute has an accreditation system for C2C products that meet their criteria, and their aim is to ‘power the shift to a circular economy by setting the global standard for materials, products, and systems that positively impact people and planet’.

Their certification process has over 34,000 products currently certified, from building materials to packaging. This system contrasts with the commonly heard refrain: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, or the three ‘Rs’.

The three Rs are often something promoted by industries as a solution to our pollution problems, but it isn’t. By reducing the products used, the same damage is being done, just over a longer period. By reusing products, their quality is reduced, and many products are now made so cheaply, that reusing is impossible. Recycling is also often impossible, with plastic and chemicals being used in all kinds of products that would have previously been all natural.

A great example of this is our shoes. Shoes used to be all leather, and naturally tanned. Now even leather shoes have rubber soles, and the leather is treated with cheap and harmful chemicals for tanning. This means that whereas shoes would historically break down, or could be used for other things, they now cannot. It isn’t worth it to separate out the cheap materials.

A New Way of Doing Business

The concept of Cradle-to-Cradle is completely different. A great demonstration of the system can be seen in roofing. A traditional roof absorbs heat, contributing to heating the surrounding area. It takes up space from nature, contributes to flooding as rainwater isn’t absorbed and they’re made using processes that can damage the environment. When they are replaced, the materials are thrown away. If we use roofs that are covered with soil, they will retain heat in the home, contribute less to environmental heating, there would be space provided for nature, and they would absorb more water from rainfall.

Another option for a C2C world is item libraries. We often only need to have a drill, or a sewing machine, or a floor buffer, once a year or less. Yet we still go out and purchase these items, for them to sit unused in cupboards for that one annual wielding.

Item libraries offer a different way of engaging with our environment and businesses. People can go and rent an item that doesn’t see much use, use it as they need to, and then return it. When the item becomes obsolete, it would be returned to the manufacturer, who then disassembles the item and either puts the biological items (like leather) towards compost or retains the technical components to be used in the production of new items.

Some items might sell less, but they would be made to a better quality, with better chemical treatments, and therefore be more expensive, as they would be loaned out many times. They become an investment piece, designed to last thousands of uses over a short period, rather than 10 uses over 8 years.

This would require new strategising from businesses, and a willingness to embrace change. Although we are seeing proactive movement with many businesses, the government is forcing some giants along the way.

The UK introduced a ‘Right to Repair’ law in 2021, which legislates for the consumer to be able to repair a product

Planned obsolescence is especially prevalent in tech; e-waste increased by 21% between 2014 – 19, amounting to 53.6 metric tonnes. The Right to Repair movement started in the USA, and has since spread, but businesses like Apple have lobbied directly and indirectly against it.

Since the Phoebus Cartel tightened its grip on the global lightbulb industry in the 1920s, cutting the lifespan of the average lightbulb in half and increasing the price, planned obsolescence has been a strategy of many businesses. From making the cost of replacement parts and repair higher than a replacement item, to adding model and year numbers on products (think cars and iPhones) to drive desirability with consumers. There are many ways to ramp up consumerism.

This is where legislation needs to be introduced (see ‘The Cost of Sustainability’ on page 6) by government, to make sure there is a level playing field for responsible businesses.

Cradle to Grave is Dead, Long Live C2C

If you are thinking of making the move towards a circular, or C2C model, the Institute suggests that businesses consider a design with reference to the three-point framework to determine a product’s impact and worth. These points are Economy, Equity, and Ecology.

Economy considers whether the item is viable to produce. Without this, there is no product and no jobs. Considering this is essential in our Western economic reality. Equity addresses fairness; are your employees paid fairly for their work and ideas? Finally, Ecology considers whether there is too much waste produced. With true C2C design and manufacture, products should have a net positive impact on the environment, rather than just minimising the damage.

By producing items within this framework, tentative first steps can be taken towards creating a product that is better for customers, better for the environment, and better for your workers, all while improving your bottom line.

It’s easy to couch pieces like this in ambiguous language, and ‘suggest’ that businesses ‘look towards’ incorporating these practices. But our use of resources has tripled since 1970, and if we continue growing at the same rate, we are on track to require 1.5x of the earth’s resources annually by 2040.

By acting together as responsible business owners, and as a community of like-minded members, we can create real change that will benefit those that come after us.

C2C-CERTIFIED PRODUCTS

There is an incredible variety in C2C-certified products already available. L’Oréal and Ralph Lauren both have C2C-certified products, and there are many items for the construction industry. Aluminium profiles, scaffolding, stepladders, acoustic material, traffic signs, and steel are all available and certified. If you are C2C-certified for any of your products, please let us know as we would like to promote your product and your practices to our community.

SINGLE USE PLASTICS

Polyethylene, the most used plastic, hasn’t even celebrated its 100th birthday, it was only created in 1933 (by accident). Plastic bags were created in 1965, and bottles were only patented in 1973. Plastics have helped shape our world, and allowed millions to access products that would otherwise have been inaccessible to them. It’s almost impossible to envisage what our world would look like without single use plastics, but until the late 60s and early 70s, this was the norm.