Cradle-to-grave: human design

What do you make of the "Cradle to Cradle" vision spelled out by William McDonough and Michael Braungart? Are they on the right track? Or is their optimism misplaced?

One of my favorite analogies that McDonough and Braungart make refers to the Titanic. It was claimed that this ship was indestructible, as it "pours waste into the water and smoke into the sky. It attempts to work by its own rules, which are contrary to those of nature." This example, along with many others scattered throughout the book explains that the problems we have caused to the environment are because of our design problems, not the design problems of nature.

Unlike Malthus, this architect and chemist believe that the world is facing abundance, not limits. They are optimistic that we have the tools to create a greener world by designing new products and procedures. We need to redesign in order to save our environment, but it is important to consider their point, that creating a rug made out of recycled soda cans may actually use more energy and create more waste than your average rug--and you are still going to eventually discard this rug as well.

Cradle-to-grave: I found that this section of the book related a lot to the video, "Stuff" that we watched in class. As consumers, we actually do very little consuming. Instead, the products that we use are designed for us to throw them away. Our food and other biodegradable products are combined with all of your other products and disposed of in landfills, where the value of these products is then wasted.