One of the most important and underrated aspects of material flow.
Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/
************************************************
The conservation and (re)utilization of embodied energy -
from the scale of the product to the built environment.
Yes, materials have been extracted and refined, and the
products have been made, and transported for intended use, with all its
embodied energy, the product that went through energy-intensive processes,
leaving environmental externalities. What next?
It will be unreasonable and illogical to keep producing,
while not knowing what to do with the product or refined material after the end
of its first functional or fashionable life.
The thing we know and focus on today is to grind and smelt products back
to their granular, sometimes molecular constituents, or ship them to grey
markets and landfills of less well-off places, after sometimes their
deliberately short, designed, perceived, and valued life. Maybe it’s the only
choice for some in their given context, maybe it’s a problem of not knowing
whose Lifecycle responsibility it is after the product leaves the factory.
In any case, the post-perceived functional life of products,
it becomes a problem of “compound” embodied energy associated with refined
materials and products at a global supply chain level.
Once a product or refined material enters into local
geography through a global supply chain, with all its embodied energy
associated with processing, transportation, etc., it is the responsibility of
the local economy, regional industry, and governing institutions to create
enabling grounds for maximizing the use, reuse, and repurpose of refined
materials/components and products at varying scale, be it extension of life,
second, third and fourth life or reinvented multi-functionality of such
products. Just because we have figured out how to make new products or refined
material from scratch, doesn’t make it necessary to discard old and create new
at the pace at which it is being done, just because you can.
Be it paper, plastic, cardboard, and glass products,
packaging and residues (which hold high circular potential due to their numeric
strength), or of course concrete (that holds circular potential due to sheer
scale), or discarded EV batteries, chemicals, PV modules, wind turbine
components (that holds less explored circular potential in the need of hour).
A product or refined material of any scale, at any historic
or contemporary timeline, once produced, with or without thought of the future
or post-functional life, becomes immensely valuable due to all the efforts,
time, and embodied energy associated with it, and its never too late to
reassess the real value of such product, to explore how these can be put to
best use tomorrow and in times to come, especially within the local geography.
Author: Anoop Jha
Image: Author
************************************************
[Recent update
Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.
Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com
Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/
Instagram interior design page @urbantenets
Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional
************************************************
#circulareconomy #urbanplanning #resourceeffeciency
#materailflowanalysis #LCA #climatechange #systemthinking #designthinking
#Amsterdam #Rotterdam #Utrecht #Netherlands #EU #Europe
No comments:
Post a Comment