The industrial processes that support modern life can be characterised by an input-output model, in which the inputs are natural materials and energy, while the outputs are useful things and services. However, when we step back from this process and take a long-term view, we can see all these useful things end up as wastes (mostly in rubbish tips) and that even the most ethereal of services required the degradation of energy and resources to wastes. This model might therefore be better characterised as "consume/excrete". The view of people as simply consumers and excreters might be biological, but it is not ecological.
The proverb waste not, want not reminds us that it is easy to be wasteful when there is an abundance, but that this waste can be the cause of later hardship. This is highly relevant in a context of energy descent. The opportunities to reduce waste, and in fact live from waste, are historically unprecedented. In the past only the most destitute made a living from waste. Today we should acknowledge those who creatively reuse waste as the very essence of living lightly on the earth. Apart from household and industrial wastes, modernity has created new classes of living wastes (unwanted pest plants and animals) which proliferate in our minds as much as across the landscapes of the affluent nations.
Bill Mollison defined a pollutant as 'an output of any system component that is not being used productively by any other component of the system.'[xiii] This definition encourages us to look for ways to minimise pollution and waste through designing systems to make use of all outputs. In response to a question about plagues of snails in gardens dominated by perennials, Mollison was in the habit of replying that there was not an excess of snails but a deficiency of ducks. Similarly plagues of grass and forest trees lead to devastation by bushfire of some regions, while plagues of herbivores overgraze others. Innovative and creative ways to use these upwellings of abundance is one of the characteristics of permaculture design.
A stitch in time saves nine, reminds us of the value of timely maintenance in preventing waste and work involved in major repair and restoration efforts. Although far less exciting than creative ways to use unwanted abundance, maintenance of what we already have is set to be a huge and ongoing issue in an energy descent world. All structures and systems depreciate in value and all ecological and sustainable human systems devote resources to timely maintenance.
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