There is a funny quirk of the English language that has an odd way of influencing the way we think. Words have a very powerful affect, they more or less determine our ability to think. Let’s just pretend that we only know a total of 10 words, in this case all nouns and totally unrelated. Our brains only have the ability to understand and communicate 10 different concepts. Replace one of those nouns with an adjective, and we suddenly have almost doubled our vocabulary as we can now communicate at least 19 different concepts. This simplistic example showcases just how dependent upon words we actually are. The more words we know the more thoughts we are capable of having, and the more complex our thoughts can be.

As much as words have the ability to expand our thought capabilities, they can also be a hinderance. For example, think about what you had to eat the last time you went out to a restaurant. For me it was a Chicken Burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill. For those of you who have never been, Chipotle is a fast casual mexican food restaurant. If you order a burrito from Chipotle it is wrapped in aluminum foil placed in a red sandwich basket over a sheet of thoughtfully designed, brown, sandwich paper. When you are finished with you meal (assuming you ate all of the generous portion) you make your way to the exit.  Before you leave, you can throw away the packaging of your meal into stylish oil drum containers, taking care not to discard the plastic basket. 

Sounds pretty normal right? It is, but notice the one word I happened to use indicating the action I took with my “trash.” When I was finished with my meal I threw “away” my meal’s packaging. “Away” can be a deceiving word. It indicates that something is leaving, that it is traveling to a particular place or across a distance. Away indicates that something is being put into its proper place, never to concern us again. Away makes us think that we need not concern ourselves with our former food, it’s packaging, or the  excrement it becomes. Away indicates that it is no longer our concern because it is away from us. Out of sight, out of mind. Sadly, away is deceiving, there is no away on Earth. Our trash doesn’t go away, it is merely buried somewhere. In some cases it is burnt, but it has not gone away it has been converted into energy, particulate matter and ash.

Understanding that our waste does not go away but merely moves to a different location is a key tenant to green design. Designers today should seek to minimize waste whenever possible, as it saves cost and reduces the amount of excess materials and energy used. Designers of the future should seek to eliminate the idea of waste altogether.  A properly designed world of tomorrow would have less barriers to growth. For many environmentalists limitless growth is a scary proposition. But in a properly designed world with zero waste, source materials could be continuously reused. Humans could further growth and renewal without draining our resource pool. New resources could be harvested only when needed and allowed to replenish as nature intended.

Developments in the world of nanotechnology or biology could allow the citizens of the future to disassemble all of their used or unwanted “waste” down to the most basic elements. Waste could be broken down to individual atoms if necessary.  The resulting source materials could be reassembled into any product necessary. 

But this is the world of science fiction. In the world of today, the world of Chipotle Burritos wrapped in aluminum foil, we need solutions to reduce or possibly eliminate waste. Burritos are a good place to start. Every Chipotle burrito is wrapped in aluminum foil and all of this foil goes to waste. Aluminum is one of the rare elements that does not break down or degrade when recycled. If Chipotle could develop a collection and recycling system for their foil they would dramatically reduce the need to buy new foil. The result is that less aluminum would have to be mined and produced into foil. The barrier to this is probably cost but I would think that as Chipotle continues to grow it could potentially enact a program like this. 

After all, Cannon just announced that they have begun turning old copiers into the source materials for new calculators. The LS-120TSG and the F-502G are made from 100% recycled plastic from the copiers, and the LS-120TSG is solar powered. Granted the system isn’t 100% reused materials but it is a start.

Photo Credit: tiswango on Flickr under Creative Commons

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