Difference between revisions of "Recycling"
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| − | + | If we can develop waste systems that enable humanity to recycle nearly all unneeded objects and material, this means only a small percentage of the total required raw materials for manufacturing goods and constructing buildings need to be extracted from the ground. | |
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[[Image:Recycling.png|right|100px]] | [[Image:Recycling.png|right|100px]] | ||
| − | + | Currently modern society is vastly inefficient, dumping perfectly good material back into the ground {{em}} creating dump wasteland {{em}} while simultaneously creating more wasteland through quarrying, mining and deforestation. This can be reduced massively by engineering sophisticated recycling systems. | |
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| + | == Automated recycling == | ||
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| + | Combining automated recycling with thoughtful engineering and design for disassembly should allow the recovery the majority of the material from goods and products when they come to the end of their useful life so it can be re-used to make the next generation of goods. This not only spares the land but reduces the energy required for material processing as it is already concentrated in useful form. | ||
| − | Automated recycling does not really exist yet in any significant form compared to what | + | Automated recycling does not really exist yet in any significant form compared to what should be possible. Increasing amounts of product disassembly is occurring now, but it is mainly a manual task and is better left to machines if we can engineer them. |
*Production of all parts with indelible barcodes or embedded RFID tags. | *Production of all parts with indelible barcodes or embedded RFID tags. | ||
Revision as of 22:37, 26 September 2007
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Material
If we can develop waste systems that enable humanity to recycle nearly all unneeded objects and material, this means only a small percentage of the total required raw materials for manufacturing goods and constructing buildings need to be extracted from the ground.
Currently modern society is vastly inefficient, dumping perfectly good material back into the ground — creating dump wasteland — while simultaneously creating more wasteland through quarrying, mining and deforestation. This can be reduced massively by engineering sophisticated recycling systems.
Automated recycling
Combining automated recycling with thoughtful engineering and design for disassembly should allow the recovery the majority of the material from goods and products when they come to the end of their useful life so it can be re-used to make the next generation of goods. This not only spares the land but reduces the energy required for material processing as it is already concentrated in useful form.
Automated recycling does not really exist yet in any significant form compared to what should be possible. Increasing amounts of product disassembly is occurring now, but it is mainly a manual task and is better left to machines if we can engineer them.
- Production of all parts with indelible barcodes or embedded RFID tags.
- Recycling plants that can disassemble any product whether it's components are tagged or not. Tags identifying components are likely to speed up the process if present.
Re-using
Also relevant in the big picture is making maximum use of an artifact by letting someone else have it after it has finished being useful to the current owner, rather than binning it. People often hoard, or dispose of, many items that would be perfectly useful to other people. More use of eBay, charity shops and initiatives such as Freecycle would significantly improve mankind's resource efficiency.
