Making Materials Matter

Abstract

For sustainability, it would be much more effective and economically efficient to focus on designing and using less hazardous materials. By paying more attention to the materials that we manufacture and use, we could pay less attention to their impacts on people and the environment. The environmental costs of materials show up in damage from materials extraction, pollution, energy consumed, and waste material disposal. The model on which the materials management system is based is flawed. Future systems must be cyclical ones of sustainable managed material flows that conserve resources and minimize dissipation. Material recycling and reuse must be primary components, along with new extraction, harvesting, and treatment practices. Needed are new policies that promote human health and environmental quality, as well as economic efficiency and product effectiveness. The policies may be either public or private, but they must be integrative and focused on the full life cycle of materials. This sustainable materials economy will require new information systems, re-direction of materials markets, reconfiguration of corporate missions and designs, changes in government policies, and public engagement.