social and environmental graphic design: Abby - Cradle-to-Grave vs Cradle-to-Cradle

The cradle-to-grave model is where you recycle creating some waste. This waste may be toxic.
The cradle-to-cradle model is based on nature itself where nothing is wasted. Waste is seen as food or nourishment for something else to begin or be created just as in biology everything goes back to nature safely. All products should be nutrient safe for the environment.

Cradle-to-Grave model
- Old idea/way
- Throwing things away
- Waste
- Recycling but the new recycled product is of a lesser
  quality than the original (down-cycled)
- Use of toxic chemicals
- Synthetic materials which cannot be reused or broken
  down
- Not sustainable
- Recycled creating waste

Cradle-to-Cradle model
- New idea/way
- Nothing thrown away
- No waste
- Recycling and the new product is of same quality or
  better (up-cycled)
- Extract toxic chemicals
- Synthetic materials must be reusable and be up cycled
  not down cycled
- Sustainable
- Closed-loop industrial cycle

"Nike Considered” is a new type of shoe that is designed by Nike with all components that are re-usable. Before this old shoes would have been thrown out or recycled through second hand shops. Now the Nike Cradle-to-cradle program called Reuse-A-Shoe collects worn-out athletic shoes of any brand and reuse every part of the shoe to make new shoes of good quality.

Nike also uses left over scrap material and grinds it all up to make a product called Nike Grind which can then be used for the highest-quality sports surfaces.
They are an example of the cradle-to-cradle model. Ford wants a 3000lb car made out of 3000lb of materials, (rather than 50,000lbs that most cars currently now use). They see this as a philosophy that will affect all business.