Abstract

As ‘eco-restructuring’ commences, new elements in our waste management infrastructure should be created. These include a redefinition of product types to acknowledge their life-cycle environmental impacts; reallocation of responsibilities between producers and consumers for these products; product redesign for environmental compatibility; source-separation sites or ‘waste supermarkets,’ and accessible repositories or ‘waste parking lots.’

Where We Need to Go

Industry has traditionally focused on production rather than waste management. Over time this has led to the creation of chemicals and products for which no environmentally sound method of disposal exists. Large-scale production has led in turn to significant waste disposal problems. In order to shift from a primitive, low-efficiency type I industrial ecology (see Graedel, this volume) to something more sustainable, a new infrastructure for waste management is required.

Marketplace norms today define products on a spectrum from ‘consumable’ to ‘durable,’ depending on their useful lifetimes. However, to give prominence to environmental factors, it is useful to classify products according to their life-cycle, cradle-to-grave impacts. The crucial distinction is between consumable products and service products.

Consumable products, such as washing powder or food, are purchased to be consumed, i.e., converted by chemical reaction into energy and byproducts. They are normally put out into the natural environment after only one use. Service products, by contrast, are not consumed; rather they provide some service over and over again. Automobiles, television sets, and washing machines are examples of products providing the services of transportation, entertainment, and cleaning. Thinking prescriptively, an ‘eco-restructured’ economy should differentiate its treatment of consumable products and service products.