Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce consumption, reuse, recycle. “Do more with less to minimize damage,” environmentalists urge. But as this book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, cradle-to-grave model of production. This model dates back to the Industrial Revolution and instantly turns as much as ninety percent of the materials created to make durable goods into waste. Why not challenge the idea that human industry must inevitably damage the environment? Why not take nature itself as a model? A tree produces thousands of flowers to create another tree. We do not consider such abundance wasteful; on the contrary, we regard this phenomenon as safe, beautiful and highly effective. “Waste is food,” is the first principle laid out in the book. Products can be designed to provide food for something new at the end of their life - as "biological nutrients" that are returned safely to the environment, or as "technical nutrients" that remain in closed loops Developing their principles for (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonagh and Michael Braungart make a viable case for change.