A waste-hungry linear system

2. A waste-hungry linear system.

by Alex Lemille

Throughout our industrial history our technological advances have been remarkable - we all know that as we depend on these technologies in our everyday lives. Living without them is not conceivable. Yet, there is one major aspect of our mode of production that hasn’t changed since its early beginning in the United Kingdom, the modus-operandi of processing things: we take resources off the ground, we make products from these elements, we buy them, we consume them, and when it is time to change, we simply dispose of them. We generate waste and financial losses throughout the processing chain with most of the left-overs generated at the "take" phase, when goods are extracted. We apply most fossil and labour energy at that stage and create about 96% of squandered resources throughout our industrial practices.

is highly present in our South African economy - also called mining - and has in recent years shaken up its economy. This is symptomatic of the nature of the take/make/dispose manufacturing model in which we live. Such a linear model blooms when resources are abundant, but cannot adapt and - self-destroys itself - when resources are scarce. We have entered that phase – also called the "Conservation" stage – where cooperation between species is taking the lead, given that most resources are locked-up. We therefore have to adapt to this ‘cooperation’ within our system, a necessary path before a future new cycle of abundance (although quite long-term). Living in a world with limited resources and not evolving in this cooperative mode is extremely risky. Our chances to survive to the next cycle are slims.