We recently discovered that the average glass of orange juice uses about 25 kg of materials to get from the tree to your table. This includes fertilisers & pesticides, water for irrigation, fuel for farm machinery and transportation and paper, plastic and ink for packaging and labelling. A lot of that 25 kg will end up as waste - pollution from fuel & chemicals and solid waste from packaging.
And that's only one example. In the US of A for every 100kg of manufactured goods there is a staggering 3200 kg of waste. Of the raw materials we extract from mother earth only 6% end up as durable goods. The other 94%? Waste.
It is calculated that we are already consuming one third more than the planet can produce. If everybody consumed at the same rate as the First World then we would need 2 more earths to keep up. Obviously that is not sustainable.
Cleaner Production is a way of looking at the whole design/production/consumption cycle and the ecological problems that is causing. There is a strong need to look carefully at life cycle assessment of all products and see where savings can be made & efficiencies can be incorporated. By increasing the responsibilities of manufacturers as well as users a greater overall benefit can be achieved.
Some companies analyse the environmental performance of their suppliers. For example one large retailer refuses to sell products that use unsustainable forestry practices or PVC plastics.
Today we measure our progress by how much we consume. Fighting that mentality, and articulating a more ecologically viable alternative is what the clean production movement is all about.
We hope some progress is being made.