To start this post - a caveat - sustainability is absolutely necessary to improve the current global issue of green house gasses, carbon emmisions/footprint and the constant increasing temperatures perpetuated from our massive reliance on fossil fuel.
Firstly, the definition of SUSTAINABLE:
sustainable
/səˈsteɪnəbl/
adjective
adjective: sustainable
1. able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. "sustainable economic growth"
conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. "our fundamental commitment to sustainable development"
So why do we not want sustainability?
Sustainability implies that we can carry on as we are so long as it doesn't go further. Unfortunately, with the levels we are at across the globe with waste, pollution and temperature, we should be looking to reduce our output, including but not limited to our green house gasses, plastic products and general untreatable waste en masse.
What we should be aiming for is CIRCULARITY
In the building industry, we regularly destroy and remove perfectly useable materials from site without thought for where they end up, landfill being more likely than anything else.
We as specifiers, architects and designers need to come up with industry wide ideas that we can implement to help reduce our waste such as, waste management systems on site, specifying alternate uses for materials that are perfectly reuseable in different ways to their original intent and salvaging anything that isn't easily recycled or sensibly destroyed.
Easy materials to recycle like timber, ceramics and stone are some of the big contributors to the excess waste that can be reused or recycled but aren't. Synthetic fibers in carpets, fabrics and other surface treatments are more difficult to recycle but not impossible, unfortunately, there is currently very very few options for salvaging fiberous material to be respun or treated. In commercial, hospitality and especially health care situations, a huge issue is the use of solvents and coatings to ensure the safety and longevity of items for those using the space. Paint, notoriously can't easily be recycled so excess and leftover tins tend to be burnt as a method of disposal.
What can we do?
Giving excess materials to good causes is something that has always been an option with good options being local schools, housing associations and charities that provide services F.O.C is a good start but the materials donated needs to be useable, otherwise the responsibility for their disposal merely shifts onto others.
Reusing what we can on site in a different manner, although labour intensive and somewhat costly, can help reduce our waste at the point of install/rip-out but requires the time, expertise and money to impliment sensibly.
Managing waste as work progresses and materials are removed from site, needs proper planning and thought, but comes with added cost and labour. The after care from site needs to also be verifiably sustainable in itself needing more input, time and management.
The best thing we can do is specify correctly from the get go. If our original choices are made from previously used products and have future proofing plans in place for after the life of the product we are already ahead of the issue and more likely to act accordingly.
The one thing all of these methods have in common is the willingness of all involved to carry out the process as planned so as not to compromise the initial idea along with perfectly recyclable material. Without full, conscientious, implementation of any or all of these activities the process breaks down and the ethos is lost.
This makes CIRCULARITY the perpetual motion machine of green initiatives in that we can't reliably produce a plan that 100% of products can be 100% reused/recycled/repurposed by 100% of the people.
BUT...
That doesn't mean we can't try.
If we end up reducing our waste to try and reach a circular economy that can only benefit us in the long run and bringing us into the realms of sustainability. Although we dont want it because circularity is the aim, it is probably the best we can get ... and thats not a bad thing.
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