Soon nearly 1,000 nearby farms were welcoming a reliable supply of fertilizer from the industrial park. Elsewhere products are also being designed for their entire life 'cycle'. Durables' such as cars, televisions and refrigerators would not be sold but rather licensed from a company. The product would always belong to the original manufacturer, to be constructed, used and returned within a closed-loop system. When a company knows their product will end back on their doorstep yet they cannot legally throw it away, decomposition, re-use and refurbishment soon become central pillars of design.
Humans have to learn to do that.
Back in Bear River, this new thinking is taking root. Their living machine enjoys extraordinary grassroots support and the community continues to build on this spirit of co-operation and pragmatic optimism. The town's citizens have transformed a closed school into an arts centre and a recently abandoned bank building into a community health clinic. You can almost smell it in the air. Sean Kelly and Dave Redwood live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.