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I’ve done some modeling on this. Design for durability makes a huge impact on carbon impact, and design for repairability is one of the big levers there. The landfill is not the problem (sequestered carbon) it’s the fact that new things are made as fast as old things go landfill.
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Maybe give your best and a modest example? If not I remain skeptical of this approach for most things. I'd also watch your repair frequency assumptions along with full cycle manufacturing CapEx payback and incremental batch economics
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I'm not opposed to designing things to recycle, reuse, etc better, but my instinct tells me entropy will win and that carbon taxes + public R&D/venture funding are likely enough, and I'm unsure they'd come to this conclusion. Is your project going to be public?
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don't forget the emissions from moving all that plastic bullshit around too, Nick! it really adds up. carbon tax would be fine but why not design better. (I recall looking into this but don't have a cite atm)
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Yea sure, I hope people try this approach if they believe the math. I'm just skeptical that a circular economy is realistically better than other means. There are many examples of "built to last" products having average use lifespans below the energy payback period (ie net loss).
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Replying to and
this is my cynicism / experience in industrial design too: you can spend a heck of a lot of design and tooling time on making something good and repairable, a lot more resources to build it, and people throw it out anyway. I'm all for right to repair, but nearly no one does it
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But the larger point is, there’s no way to decarbonize without shifting consumption patterns to a lower-emissions equilibrium. There’s only so far you can get with taxes, cap-and-trade, and carbon credits. And with matter unlike energy there’s fewer big levers like renewables.
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Trying to do it with pure carbon taxes almost certainly won’t work. There are even worse “stainless steel bottle” greenwashing problems in tax policy. And the behavioral equilibrium there is imo more entrenched not less.
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that would be my takeaway, we could regulate manufacturing as much as possible but in the end it's a consumer culture / incentive thing. stand in any walmart and guess how many average people own screwdrivers, have the time / interest / skill to diagnose and fix something, etc
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The real question is what are the assumptions of those models. Greenwashers will overstate as-used product lifetimes / disposable product externalities while understating their "green" product. This is why I like to say: "carbon tax and chill", as CO2 price will enforce true cost