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Transforming Our Economy

About This Collection

Inspired by the Capital Institute's Third Millennium Economy initiative, this collection highlights those voices - ecological economists, sociologist, finance professionals, environmentalists, community developers - advocating a restructuring of our economy to transition to a truly sustainable economic system.

Curated by mokiethecat

Plants instead of petroleum | DIF 2019
November 11, 2019
Waste and pollution are not accidents, but the consequences of decisions made at the design stage. By chaining our mindset to view waste as a design flaw, we can ensure waste and pollution are not created in the first place. Petroleum is at the heart of most our systems and is the basis of our linear economy. It is impossible to evolve a circular system on a source that cannot be renewed. What are the alternatives? Organic material (plants) - the origin of petroleum - is a sound option. It is naturally abundant, ubiquitous and already produced in large quantities by agriculture. So why isn’t this material used today? Plants are designed to cope with environmental stress (parasites, weather) and only minor parts can be deconstructed easily. These part are usually edible. The majority is very difficult to upgrade in a way that leads to ‘petroleum-like’ molecules. However, researchers at EPFL in Switzerland have developed a way in which plants can finally be fully valorised and utilised as petroleum.