NDAed work 😂
Conversation
Sorry, can’t. This was a serious larger project involving several others. But Ellen MacArthur foundation stuff on circular economy has some broad strokes background ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-econo
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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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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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Yea same here - I keep thinking of the example of a stainless water bottle where most users never used it long enough to pay back the upfront energy investment.
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Yeah it’s not a panacea. Plastic straws and cloth totes are other examples. It’s a mix of targeted redesign, proper labeling, modeling and imitation, and incentives. Designing for durability and repairability as a general default in isolation won’t work.
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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.
Equilibrium? ie the ability for the US/world to implement carbon taxes you mean?



