The latest improvement on sustainability is the concept of ‘zero emissions.’ Here it is not acceptable to produce just enough waste so as to not overwhelm nature’s capacity to recycle our industrial by-products. The goal is to produce our goods and services in a way that there are no wastes—so that the by-products of one industrial process become the inputs for another process. In this industrial ecology, we connect the waste streams from one industrial plant to the input channels of another, thereby turning waste into resources.
The Good Future is entirely possible – we just need to make the right decisions today!