Feb 12 2012
If you missed Friday, we discussed the “next” industrial revolution. Did you know it was underway? The last industrial revolution gave us the linear material flow economy-the one we diagrammed earlier in the week. While recycling programs do reduce some waste disposal and some extraction, they focus on the “downstream” end of that flow (waste [...]
Feb 09 2012
In class on Wednesday, February 8, we discussed the Material Flow Economy, or, as our textbook calls it, “the waste stream.” Basically, the material flow economy talks about how goods are produced and where they eventually end up (this model began with the Industrial Revolution). In other words, products that consumers buy and use move [...]
Feb 08 2012
In class Tuesday, we discussed the generation of waste in the world and where we put that waste. We learned very quickly that there is no such thing as throwing something completely “away” but that the waste we expend becomes someone elses problem. Let’s start with the basics. EPA data from 2009 estimates that there [...]
