Definition
Cradle to cradle can be defined as the design and production of products of all types in such a way that at the end of their life, they can be truly recycled (upcycled), imitating nature’s cycle with everything either recycled or returned to the earth, directly or indirectly through food, as a completely safe, nontoxic, and biodegradable nutrient. With cradle to cradle, all the components of a product feed another product, the earth or animal, or become fuel: products are composed of either materials that biodegrade and become food for biological cycles or of technical materials that stay in closed-loop technical cycles, continually circulating as valuable nutrients for industry. It could be argued that cradle to cradle is equivalent to true sustainability – through the biological or technical components used, all products become sustainable as nothing becomes waste which cannot be reused.
The term...
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References and Readings
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Sherratt, A. (2013). Cradle to Cradle. In: Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_165
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_165
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