Dimensions of a Wasteless Future

This article has been written by Michael Rada, President and Project Father at IBCSD LAB s.r.o. – INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CENTER OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. I follow Michael on LinkedIn and I admire his passion and dedication to waste prevention and industrial upcycling – you can read more about his work at his website http://industrial-upcycling.cz (use Google translator, you will have a pretty good idea of the content). His post deals with the society’s transformation in a Wasteless Future. Thank you, Michael, for trying to put some more pieces to a vision that is still puzzled but realistic…

“This article was written for the blog THE WASTELESS FUTURE owned and directed by one of wasteless activities leader Antonis Mavropoulos. When he gave me the chance to contribute to his blog I was honored knowing it is a big privilege for me. The question is what should be the topic.

Just after return from my Sunday E-MOTION ride and first 100 km of 2017 on my electric unicycle, I was clear about it. Let’s discuss the topic of wasteless future, better to say of our will to live in wasteless future. Before answering the question let’s visualize how does the wasteless world look like.

AGRICULTURE

In the wasteless future, the space of land consumed or utilized by agriculture would be significantly decreased. One of the reasons would be the improved planning vs. consumption coordination. This will dramatically reduce the current 82% volume of crops that never reach the second stage of the supply chain to something bellow 10%. Second reason would be the large scale urban and industrial farming utilizing existing brownfields to grow locally in the heart of cities. The third one would be the diversion from “meat and life stock industry” to lab-grown food and vegan/vegetarian food supply. All of the above mentioned will have a significant impact on the reduction of water wastage.

INDUSTRY

In wasteless future, the mass and overproduction would be a matter of history. Matching the production with consumption within global, as well as the local environment, would be achieved thanks to deep and progressive data mining and work with big data. Due to that INDUSTRY 4.0 will be exchanged by INDUSTRY 5.0 and its further evolution establishing harmony between HUMAN and MACHINE of all kinds. The industry will no more be dependent on “common” Natural resources but will maximize the utilization of on-the-ground-mines left by generations before. Landfills will be transformed to mining fields and all products will have an extended lifespan, with the ability to be re-used and re-utilised for two or even three times. Instead of buying NEW stuff, we will mostly REPAIR things, and RE-UTILIZATION patterns will be considered as progress and advanced society signatures.

SOCIETY

The age limits (bottom and top ones) will be abolished giving same rights to contribute to society to all young an old people. Same for gender “rating” as well as religion. Profit sharing will become standard in each environment, rewarding more those who contribute to the value. There will be no fixed dividing between working hours and private time, instead of that flexible working times depending on our own ability and speed. The society will change the “Me and I” direction to “Us, We” and become a new Community by using modern age technology as a tool for improvement, not as a tool of separation and discrimination.

POLITICS

Politics would become a serious profession again, including all related aspects. Salary reflecting the added value, tasks which can be fulfilled, employment contracts with possibilities to end them etc. Political parties would be a matter of the past, for there is only one interest and this is the interest of society on local, so as global scope. The politicians will have full responsibility for their own work and results, gain no general pardons, and work the same as all other members of society.

WASTE MANAGEMENT: why?”