Let's talk about thrift. Thrift is a concept where you reduce, reuse and recycle, but yet with an economic aspect I think has a real potential for change. My grandmother, she knew about thrift. This is her string jar. She never bought any string. Basically, she would collect string. It would come from the butcher's, it would come from presents. She would put it in the jar and then use it when it was needed. When it was finished, whether it was tying up the roses or a part of my bike, once finished with that, it'd go back into the jar. This is a perfect idea of thrift; you use what you need, you don't actually purchase anything, so you save money.
Hajde da razgovaramo o štednji. Štednja je koncept da smanjite upotrebu, iznova koristite i reciklirate, ali smatram da tek uz ekonomski aspekt ima pravi potencijal da donese promenu. Moja baba je znala za štednju. Ovo je njena tegla sa kanapima. Nikada nije kupovala kanape. Ona bi ih u suštini sakupljala. Dobila bi kanap kod mesara, našla bi ga na poklonima. Stavila bi ga u teglu i koristila kad zatreba. Kada bi završila sa njime, bilo da je privezivala ruže ili deo na mom biciklu, kada bi to bilo gotovo, vratila bi ga u teglu. To je savršena predstava štednje; upotrebite ono što vam treba, ništa ne kupujete i tako sačuvate novac.
Kids also inherently know this idea. When you want to throw out a cardboard box, the average kid will say, "Don't! I want to use it for a robot head or for a canoe to paddle down a river." They understand the value of the second life of products. So, I think thrift is a perfect counterpoint to the current age which we live in. All of our current products are replaceable. When we get that bright, new, shiny toy, it's because, basically, we got rid of the old one. The idea of that is, of course, it's great in the moment, but the challenge is, as we keep doing this, we're going to cause a problem.
I deca prirodno znaju za ovu ideju. Kada hoćete da bacite kartonsku kutiju, prosečno dete će reći: „Nemoj! Hoću da je iskoristim za glavu robota ili za kanu da veslam niz reku.“ Ona razumeju vrednost ponovnog korišćenja proizvoda. Mislim da je štednja savršeni kontrast savremenom dobu u kome živimo. Svi naši trenutni proizvodi mogu se zameniti. Kada donesemo tu novu svetlucavu igračku, to je zato što smo se, u suštini, otarasili stare igračke. Zamisao o tome je da je to, naravno, sjajna stvar u datom trenutku, ali nezgodno je to što ćemo, ako nastavimo sa time, izazvati problem.
That problem is that there is really no way. When you throw something away, it typically goes into a landfill. Now, a landfill is basically something which is not going to go away, and it's increasing. At the moment, we have about 1.3 billion tons of material every year going into landfills. By 2100, it's going to be about four billion tons. See, instead, I'd prefer if we started thrifting. What that means is, we consider materials when they go into products and also when they get used, and, at the end of their life: When can they be used again? It's the idea of completely changing the way we think about waste, so waste is no longer a dirty word -- we almost remove the word "waste" completely. All we're looking to is resources. Resource goes into a product and then can basically go into another product. We used to be good at thrifting. My grandmother, again, used to use old seed packets to paper the bathroom walls.
Problem je u tome što to tako ne ide. Kada nešto bacite, to obično ode na deponiju. Deponija je u suštini nešto što neće nestati, i povećava se. Trenutno imamo oko 1,3 milijarde tona materijala na godišnjem nivou koji odlazi na deponije. Do 2100. godine biće oko četiri milijarde tona. Vidite, umesto toga, ja bih da počnemo da štedimo. To znači da se zapitamo o materijalima kada se od njih prave proizvodi, kao i kada se koriste i, na kraju njihove upotrebe, kada se mogu ponovo upotrebiti. Zamisao je u tome da potpuno promenimo način razmišljanja o otpadu, tako da otpad više ne bude ružna reč - skoro da sasvim uklonimo reč „otpad“. Jedino na šta treba da obratimo pažnju su resursi. Resursi odlaze u proizvod, a zatim u suštini mogu da idu u drugi proizvod. Nekada nam je dobro išla štednja. Moja baka je, ponovo, imala običaj da koristi stare kesice za seme za oblaganje zidova u kupatilu.
I think, though, there are companies out there who understand this value and are promoting it. And a lot of the technologies that have been developed for the smart age can also be adapted to reduce, reuse and also thrift more proficiently. And as a materials scientist, what I've been tracking over the last couple of decades is how companies are getting smart at thrifting, how they're able to understand this concept and profit from it. I'm going to give you two examples. The first one, a good one; the second one, not so good.
Mislim da, doduše, ima kompanija koje razumeju ovu vrednost i promovišu je. Veliki broj tehnologija koje su razvijene za novo doba mogu se prilagoditi da smanje upotrebu, iznova koriste, pa i da štede veštije. Kao naučnik koji se bavi materijalima, pratio sam tokom poslednjih par decenija kako kompanije inteligentnije štede, kako su u stanju da razumeju ovaj koncept i da profitiraju na njemu. Daću vam dva primera. Prvi je dobar, a drugi ne tako dobar.
The first is the automotive industry. Not always known as the most innovative or creative of industries, but it turns out, they're really, really good at recycling their products. Ninety-five percent of every single car that goes on the road gets recycled here. And of that car, about 75 percent of the entire car actually gets used again. That includes, of course, the old steel and aluminum but then also the plastics from the fender and the interiors, glass from the windows and the windshield and also the tires. There's a mature and successful industry that deals with these old cars and basically recycles them and puts them back into use as new cars or other new products. Even as we move towards battery-powered cars, there are companies that claim they can recycle up to 90 percent of the 11 million tons of batteries that are going to be with us in 2020. That, I think, is not perfect, but it's certainly good, and it's getting better.
Prvi je automobilska industrija. Nije oduvek poznata kao najinovativnija ili najkreativnija industrija, ali ispostavilo se da su zaista dobri u recikliranju svojih proizvoda. Devedeset pet odsto svih automobila koji se nađu na putu bude reciklirano ovde. A oko 75 posto celog automobila zaista i bude ponovo iskorišćeno. To podrazumeva, naravno, stari čelik i aluminijum, ali i plastiku sa blatobrana i sa unutrašnjeg dela, staklo sa prozora i vetrobrana, kao i gume. Ovo je zrela i uspešna industrija koja radi sa starim automobilima, u suštini ih reciklira i ponovo stavlja u upotrebu kao nove automobile i druge nove proizvode. Čak i dok idemo ka automobilima koje pokreću baterije, postoje kompanije koje tvrde da mogu reciklirati do 90 posto od 11 miliona tona baterija koje će biti sa nama 2020. godine. To, po meni, nije savršeno, ali je svakako dobro, i ide nabolje.
The industry that's not doing so well is the architecture industry. One of the challenges with architecture has always been when we build up, we don't think about taking down. We don't dismantle, we don't disassemble, we demolish. That's a challenge, because it ends up that about a third of all landfill waste in the US is architecture. We need to think differently about this. There are programs that can actually reduce some of this material.
Industrija kojoj ne ide tako dobro je arhitektonska industrija. Jedan od problema arhitekture oduvek je bio taj što, kada pravimo građevinu, ne razmišljamo o njenom rasturanju. Ne demontiramo, ne rastavljamo, već rušimo. To je problem, jer na kraju oko trećine celokupnog otpada na deponijama u SAD-u pripada arhitekturi. Moramo drugačije razmišljati o ovome. Postoje programi koji mogu smanjiti količinu ovog materijala.
A good example is this. These are actually bricks that are made from old demolition waste, which includes the glass, the rubble, the concrete. You put up a grinder, put it all together, heat it up and make these bricks we can basically build more buildings from. But it's only a fraction of what we need.
Dobar primer ovoga. Postoje cigle koje su napravljene od starog otpada od rušenja, što obuhvata staklo, šljunak, beton. Postavite drobilicu, sve stavite zajedno, zagrejete i napravite cigle od kojih praktično možemo da napravimo još građevina. Ali, to je samo delić onoga što nam je potrebno.
My hope is that with big data and geotagging, we can actually change that, and be more thrifty when it comes to buildings. If there's a building down the block which is being demolished, are there materials there that the new building being built here can use? Can we use that, the ability to understand that all the materials available in that building are still usable? Can we then basically put them into a new building, without actually losing any value in the process?
Nadam se da pomoću velikih podataka i geooznačavanja to možemo promeniti i postati štedljiviji kada je reč o izgradnji. Ako negde dole u ulici postoji zgrada koja se ruši, ima li tamo materijala koji se mogu iskoristiti za novu zgradu koja se gradi ovde? Možemo li to upotrebiti, sposobnost da shvatimo da se svi postojeći materijali u toj zgradi još mogu iskoristiti? Možemo li ih zatim spojiti u novu zgradu bez ikakvog gubitka vrednosti u tom procesu?
So now let's think about other industries. What are other industries doing to create thrift? Well, it turns out that there are plenty of industries that are also thinking about their own waste and what we can do with it. A simple example is the waste that they basically belch out as part of industrial processes. Most metal smelters give off an awful lot of carbon dioxide. Turns out, there's a company called Land Detector that's actually working in China and also soon in South Africa, that's able to take that waste gas -- about 700,000 tons per smelter -- and then turn it into about 400,000 tons of ethanol, which is equivalent to basically powering 250,000, or quarter of a million, cars for a year. That's a very effective use of waste.
Hajde da sada razmislimo o drugim industrijama. Šta druge industrije rade da ostvare štednju? Pa, ispada da je veliki broj industrija koje takođe misle o svom otpadu i o tome šta mogu uraditi sa njime. Prost primer je otpad koji izbacuju kao deo industrijskih procesa. Većina topionica metala ispušta strašno mnogo ugljen-dioksida. Ispostavilo se da postoji kompanija po imenu Lend detektor koja radi u Kini, a uskoro i u Južnoj Africi, koja može da preuzme taj otpadni gas - oko 700 000 tona po topionici - i zatim ga pretvori u oko 400 000 tona etanola, što u suštini znači napajanje 250 000, tj. četvrt miliona automobila, tokom godinu dana. To je veoma efikasna upotreba otpada.
How about products more close to home? This is a simple solution. And it, again, takes the idea of reducing, reusing, but then also with economic advantage. So it's a simple process of changing from a cut and sew, where typically between 20 and 30 materials are used which are cut from a large cloth and then sewn together or even sometimes glued, they changed it and said that they just knitted the shoe. The advantage with this is not just a simplification of the process, it's also, "I've got one material. I have zero waste," and then also, "I'm able to potentially recycle that at the end of its life."
A šta je sa proizvodima bliže nama? Ovo je jednostavno rešenje. Ono ponovo preuzima ideju smanjene upotrebe i ponovnog korišćenja, ali uz ekonomske prednosti. U pitanju je jednostavan proces promene od šivenja ispočetka, gde se obično iskoristi između 20 i 30 materijala koji se iseku od velike tkanine, pa zatim zašiju i ponekad čak i zalepe, što su promenili i rekli da su samo spojili patiku. Prednost ovoga nije samo u pojednostavljivanju procesa, već: „Imam jedan materijal. Nemam nimalo otpada,“ kao i: „Mogu ovo da recikliram na kraju njegove upotrebe.“
Digital manufacturing is also allowing us to do this more effectively. In this case, it's actually creating the theoretical limit of strength for a material: you cannot get any stronger for the amount of material than this shape. So it's a basic simple block, but the idea is, I can extrapolate this, I can make it into large formats, I can make it into buildings, bridges, but also airplane wings and shoes. The idea here is, I'm minimizing the amount of material.
Digitalna proizvodnja nam takođe omogućava da ovo uradimo efikasnije. U ovom slučaju, ona stvara teoretsko ograničenje upotrebne moći za materijale: ne možete izvući više od date količine materijala od ovog oblika. To je osnovni, jednostavan komad, ali ideja je da to mogu da proširim, da ovo prenesem na veće formate, na zgrade, mostove, ali i na krila aviona i obuću. Ideja je u tome da svodim količinu materijala na minimum.
Here's a good example from architecture. Typically, these sorts of metal nodes are used to hold up large tent structures. In this case, it in was in the Hague, along a shopping center. They used 1600 of the materials on the left. The difference is, by using the solution on the right, they cut down the number of steps from seven to one, because the one on the left is currently welded, the one on the right is simply just printed. And it was able to reduce waste to zero, cost less money and also, because it's made out of steel, can be eventually recycled at the end of its life.
Evo dobrog primera iz arhitekture. Ovakve metalne spojnice se obično koriste da drže velike strukture nalik šatorima. U ovom slučaju, bilo je to u Hagu, duž jednog tržnog centra. Upotrebili su 1 600 komada materijala sa leve strane. Razlika je u tome što su, pomoću rešenja sa desne strane, smanjili broj koraka sa sedam na jedan, jer onaj sa leve strane je trenutno zavaren, a onaj sa desne je jednostavno odštampan. Uspeo je da smanji otpad na nulu, manje košta i, takođe, pošto je od čelika, može se reciklirati na kraju upotrebe.
Nature also is very effective at thrift. Think about it: nature has zero waste. Everything is useful for another process. So, in this case, nanocellulose, which is basically one of the very fine building blocks of cellulose, which is one of the materials that makes trees strong, you can isolate it, and it works very much like carbon fiber. So, take that from a tree, form it into fibers, and then those fibers can strengthen things, such as airplanes, buildings, cars. The advantage of this, though, is it's not just bioderived, comes from a renewable resource, but also that it is transparent, so it can be used in consumer electronics, as well as food packaging. Not bad for something that basically comes from the backyard.
Priroda takođe efikasno štedi. Razmislite o tome - u prirodi nema otpada. Sve je od koristi za neki drugi proces. Tako je u ovom slučaju nanoceluloze - koja predstavlja jedan od vrlo finih sastavnih delova celuloze, a koja je jedan od materijala zbog kojih je drveće snažno - možete je izolovati, i funkcioniše vrlo slično ugljeničnim vlaknima. Dakle, uzmete je sa drveta, oblikujete u vlakna, a zatim ta vlakna mogu da ojačaju stvari kao što su avioni, zgrade i automobili. Prednost ovoga nije samo u tome što je biološki proizvedena, što proističe iz obnovljivog resursa, već i u tome što je providna, pa se može koristiti kod električnih aparata, kao i za pakovanje hrane. Nije loše za nešto što u suštini potiče iz dvorišta.
Another one from the biosource is synthetic spider silk. Now, it's very hard to actually create spider silk naturally. You can basically get it from spiders, but in large numbers, they tend to kill each other, eat each other, so you've got a problem with creating it, in the same way you do with regular silk. So what you can do is instead take the DNA from the spider, and put it into various different things. You can put it into bacteria, you can put it into yeast, you can put it into milk. And what you can do then is, the milk or the bacteria produce in much larger volumes and then from that, spin a yarn and then create a fabric or a rope. Again, bioderived, has incredible strength -- about the same as Kevlar -- so they're using it in things like bulletproof vests and helmets and outdoor jackets. It has a great performance. But again, it's bioderived, and at the end of its life, it potentially can go back into the soil and get composted to again be potentially used as a new material.
Još jedan materijal iz biološkog izvora je sintetička paukova svila. Veoma je teško stvoriti paukovu svilu prirodno. Možete je dobiti od paukova, ali kada ih ima u velikom broju, skloni su da ubijaju i jedu jedni druge, tako da imate problem sa proizvodnjom isto kao i sa običnom svilom. Umesto toga možete da uzmete DNK pauka i ubacite je u različite stvari. Možete je staviti u bakterije, u gljivice, u mleko. Zatim možete - mleko ili bakterija proizvode u mnogo većim količinama, zatim od toga napravite predivo i zatim stvorite tkaninu ili kanap. Opet, biološki je proizvedena, ima neverovatnu snagu - otprilike kao vlakna Kevlar - pa se koristi za stvari poput pancira, kaciga i zimskih jakni. Jako je izdržljiva. Još jednom, biološki je proizvedena, i na kraju upotrebe se može vratiti u zemljište i razložiti tako da se ponovo može upotrebiti kao novi materijal.
I'd like to leave you with one last form which is biobased, but this, I think, is like the ultimate thrift. Think about the poster child for conspicuous consumption. It's the water bottle. We have too many of them, they're basically going everywhere, they're a problem in the ocean. What do we do with them? This process is able not just to recycle them, but to recycle them infinitely. Why is that interesting? Because when we think about reusing and recycling, metals, glass, things like that, can be recycled as many times as you like. There's metal in your car that may well have come from a 1950s Oldsmobile, because you can recycle it infinitely with no loss of performance. Plastics offer about once or twice of recycling, whether it's a bottle, whether it's a chair -- whatever it is, if it's carpet -- after two times of recycling, whether it goes back into another chair, etc, it tends to lose strength, it's no longer of any use. This, though, just using a few enzymes, is able to recycle it infinitely. I take a bottle or a chair or some other plastic product, I basically put it in with a few enzymes, they break it apart, they basically put it back into its original molecules. And then from those molecules, you can build another chair or carpet or bottle. So, the cycle is infinite. The advantage with that, of course, is that you have potentially zero loss of material resources. Again, the perfect idea of thrift.
Završio bih poslednjom materijom koja ima biološku osnovu, a to je po meni, štednja u svojoj krajnosti. Razmislite o tipičnom predstavniku upadljive potrošnje. U pitanju je flaša vode. Imamo ih previše, u suštini idu na sve strane, predstavljaju problem za okean. Šta da radimo sa njima? Ovaj proces je u stanju ne samo da ih reciklira, već da ih reciklira unedogled. Zašto je to zanimljivo? Zato što, kada razmišljamo o ponovnom korišćenju i reciklaži metala, stakla i takvih stvari, one se mogu reciklirati koliko god puta hoćete. U vašem automobilu postoji metal koji je možda poreklom sa Oldsmobila iz 1950-ih, jer ga možete beskonačno reciklirati bez gubitaka sa aspekta performanse. Plastiku je moguće reciklirati jednom ili dva puta, bilo da je u pitanju flaša, stolica - šta god da je, ako je tepih - nakon što se dva puta reciklira, bilo da se vrati u drugu stolicu itd, obično izgubi snagu i više se ne može koristiti. Ovo je, samo pomoću nekoliko enzima, u stanju da je reciklira beskonačno. Uzmem flašu, stolicu ili neki drugi proizvod od plastike, ubacim par enzima, oni je razlože i ponovo sastave u originalne molekule. A zatim od tih molekula možete napraviti drugu stolicu, tepih ili flašicu. Dakle, ciklus je beskonačan. Prednost toga je, naravno, u tome što potencijalno nemate nimalo gubitka materijalnih resursa. Opet, savršena ideja štednje.
So in conclusion, I just want to have you think about -- if you make anything, if you're any part of a design firm, if you basically are refurbishing your house -- any aspect where you make something, think about how that product could potentially be used as a second life, or third life or fourth life. Design in the ability for it to be taken apart. That, to me, is the ultimate thrift, and I think that's basically what my grandmother would love.
Za kraj, samo hoću da vas podstaknem da razmislite o tome da - ako nešto pravite, ako imate ulogu u nekoj firmi za dizajn, ako renovirate kuću, bilo šta da pravite - razmislite o tome kako se taj proizvod potencijalno može upotrebiti drugi, treći ili četvrti put. Osmislite to nešto u okviru mogućnosti da se kasnije rasklopi. To je za mene krajnja štednja, i mislim da je to u suštini nešto što bi moja baba volela.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)