Elegantly Wasted

I can get really nerdy. I love being surprised by technological progress that seemed impossible yesterday.

When I discovered sustainable design in the early 2000’s, I was inspired by the book Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough. His call to action was to pursue “technical nutrients,” physical products that could be broken down at the end of their lifecycles and recomposed into equally valued new products without any degradation. This is different than down cycling or repurposing. It’s more akin to biological reproduction in which living things perpetuate themselves.

Technical nutrients have been a significant industrial challenge because most of what we make is a combination of materials rather than singular or mono materials. Mono materials can reach the status of a technical nutrient. Pure metals or even polymer-based products like polyester can be reborn into themselves again. But it’s obviously more difficult when one material is fused or embedded in another. The process of decoupling may not be feasible. This is why, with few exceptions, that cars, furniture, shoes, and appliances are still difficult to recycle.

At Iceland Innovation Week I saw exciting new breakthroughs that reminded me of this technical nutrient idea. One was from Rockpore , a company that has developed a a circular lightweight aggregate—essentially a zero-carbon concrete. It is made from old concrete, glass and mining waste and can be returned to its essential form when pulverized and then made into a high quality building material again. The implications for construction and the environment are massive.

Another breakthrough was from Found Energy , a company that turns aluminum into power. The technology was conceptualized by founder, Peter Godart , when working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Struggling to find ways to fuel robots and spacecraft for long missions, he came upon the idea of a self-cannibalizing machine which could use its structure as a fuel source. It wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.

Now he has turned his focus to realizing this technology for industrial power on Earth. Aluminum is the most plentiful element on our planet’s crust and can produce twice the power of diesel by volume without carbon emissions. Approximately 7.5 million tons of aluminum go to landfill annually despite it being the most recycled metal on Earth. It’s an untapped waste stream that could provide a new source of energy for shipping and heavy industry. And amazingly the byproduct of the process is aluminum hydroxide, an essential material for—you guessed it—processing aluminum.

I was on a panel at the OK, Bye Climate Theater with Peter during Iceland Innovation Week. And while nerding out about what he’s doing, I also began reflecting on the time required to make progress toward technical nutrients and a true circular economy. I think it’s essential to put hope in new technologies to mitigate our climate crisis, but we should not let this hope be our excuse for inaction now. There are options to address climate change much closer on the horizon if we are willing to adopt them.

During my career as an innovation designer I’ve seen exciting technologies come and go. Generally adoption issues have not been due to technical feasibility. They have been about our aversion to change. Sometimes it’s industry infrastructure, contractual obligations or economic goals. On a personal level, sometimes it’s just inconvenient and disruptive to how I’ve been living. Often we have answers to progress at our fingertips but we fail to embrace the behavior change required to advance them.

When I was at IDEO we had a design principle that appeared so often in our work that it became a cliché: “meet people where they are.” But as with any cliché, it’s truth is what makes it appear again and again. This is the primary task of anyone working in innovation today. Sometimes we can change how we do things. But often the best strategy is to figure out how to insert new behaviors into the social or cultural flow.

Freyr Eyjólfsson , Circular Economy Manager at SORPA bs. (also on the panel) shared a story about Reykjavík’s recent composting program. Started only a year ago, they have already diverted the carbon emissions equivalent of 10,000 cars. It has been a success because people are familiar with sorting their waste plastic, metal, paper and glass. Adding another bin and providing the paper bags has made it a no-brainer. It’s a significant impact with insignificant disruption.

So while we know we must continue to count on the discovery of new technologies to address climate change, we also must continue to challenge ourselves to embrace change. Designing interventions, incentives and new introductions that encourage us to make better choices for the sake of our selves and our planet is as important as pursuing groundbreaking technical nutrients. We need to nerd out about ourselves too.

Thanks to José Ramos for facilitating our panel, and to the OK, Bye team for giving us the stage.

Though we met in person only the day before our panel, we became an ad hoc band and closed out our session by performing the song— “Elegantly Wasted” by INXS. In effect, we recycled our own discussion into a new, and perhaps better, art form.