Less Waste, Better Results; Standards Increase Efficiency

By, Uzma Iqbal Roll no. 1113. F.Sc (pre-medical) 2nd year. Superior College, Gujrat.

Thomas Jefferson, the writer of American Declaration of Independence, said in a letter to James Madison, the earth belongs to the living. No man may, by natural right, oblige the lands he owns or occupies, to debts greater than those that may be paid during his own lifetime, because if he could, then the world would belong to the dead, and not to the living. The world would belong to the dead. Before industrial revolution, production was limited, adhering strictly to the demand. Industrial revolution, however, gave us the nefarious gift of mass production. The process was reversed; the demand was now created for the abundantly available product. The production processes powered by fossil fuels, have low consideration for their affect on the environment. The only principle of the industrial revolution is that if brute force is not working, youre not using enough of it. If we keep on allowing it to happen, then its a strategy of tragedy. And the only way to change a strategy of tragedy is to adopt a strategy of change immediately. We need new principles to guide our production processes. Why not make the most successful example our guide then, nature itself. There is no concept of waste in nature. One organisms waste is anothers food; after death each one becomes the part of the whole ecosystem. This is the balance. Nature never runs out of basic constituents because they are constantly being recycled. Imagine if this system existed in our industries as well. Each product after its use goes to the industry and is recycled to make new and improved tech. Wed have raw material in place of waste. If waste equals food, then each product would be part of industrial metabolism, a technical nutrient; of what industry? Say electronics industry. So let these companies that design these products take them back. So when you finish with it you say, Thank you so much for the service. I enjoyed watching Television. Id like a new television please. And this becomes something designed to go back to the technical cycles forever, and not to be released. This may be an ambitious standard to keep but this is the economically, environmentally and socially sustainable strategy. A carpet industry, the Interface Corporation is working on this

concept. They are redesigning carpets so that theyll go back to being carpets forever. They will lease the services of the carpet. These are flooring services. Comfort, acoustics, visual pleasure and so on. They wont be selling carpets. They have been making carpets since 1973 and have made four billion pounds of carpets. Where are these carpets now? Most ended up being waste. Cradle to the grave typology. What is needed now is the cradle to cradle life cycle assessment. If this protocol was used before, they would still own four billion pounds of carpet of technical nutrient for their industry. The corporation would still have an asset on the bottom line of 1.4 billion dollars. If our countries and companies expect to be wealthy in the future they should accrue natural capital forever rather than deplete it. So the only kind of products we should have, are consumables that go back to soil or products of service that go into technical cycles forever, and never see landfills. We are not talking about waste reduction here; instead we are talking about eradicating it completely and making this the slogan of this centurys industrial revolution. This is the standard we want to attain, the ultimate goal. By making this standard our guide post in all production processes, we can ensure better formulation techniques, pushing them towards this standard with more creativity and research in their respective fields. Our technologies are evolving at a rapid pace. A Standard is the guide to design it to fulfill the demands of the current environment, both physical and social. With established standards, joint efforts to achieve them are encouraged on a national and international level which in turn provides with much better outcomes. Standards provide protection to the consumer and provide the industry with a guide towards customer demands. Developing standards in various fields work are working towards change and transformation of this world. They originate with the study of need and mobilize the experts and companies to produce stuff accordingly. They initiate research about exciting subjects, which would shape our future, like sustainability standards, nano and bio technologies, renewable energy resources and low carbon footprint. Standards also promote confidence in the product, encouraging its use by the consumer. Competition in the consumer goods is increasing day by day and for companies and their products to survive for long time, they need to comply with international standards. In third world countries, competition in the market for different consumer goods is too low compared to the developed countries. Their standard suffers in response. Low standard product has lesser usage and life expectancy and makes its way to the junk yard sooner rather than later. Standard is the key. It is a destination beacon. International standards concerning production processes would ensure that we do not deplete our resources through unsustainable practices. Right now our industry is like a steam engine, putting hazardous gases in our air, oil in our waters and wastes in our land. Proper standards are needed to guide us back to the industry

which is more like the sail boats, harnessed through the power of wind. We need to shape the frame of our processes for the well being of not only this generation but coming generations as well. This should be the guide for international standards in all fields. We know more about physical performance of elements and processes to create new materials than at any point in history. We have exceptional tools at our disposal to achieve standards. In short, we can afford to be adventurous in putting standards and promoting positive change. So, in summary, standards project smarter control systems and strategies that have great potential for managing demand, for minimizing unnecessary consumption of resources in meeting demands, and reducing generation of wastes and pollutants.