Page 330 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

CHAPTER 17

Materials

Production

Industries

Overview
Materials are the basic building blocks of our economy, and material
selection is an important aspect of every product design. All materi-
als originate from natural resources, whether biological or geological.
Materials production industries include agriculture, mining of metal
ores, and production of oil and gas, as well as material processing
activities, which refine or transform raw materials into commodities
that may be incorporated into final products. One of the main prin-
ciples of DFE is dematerialization (see Chapter 8), since the supply
chain activities required to extract, process, and transport materials
can generate a significant ecological footprint. Chapter 1 described
the enormous amount of waste generated in the flow of materials
through our economy. The fundamental challenge of sustainability
is to decouple continued economic growth from the throughput of
materials [1].
Materials are broadly classified as either organic or inorganic.
Organic materials, sometimes called biomass, are derived from living
organisms (e.g., cotton, wood, leather), while inorganic materials are
typically extracted from the earth’s crust. Increasingly, organic mate-
rials are being manufactured from biomass that might otherwise be
disposed of, such as food waste and agricultural residues. Inorganic
materials are considered nonrenewable, while organic materials are con-
sidered renewable, in the sense that they can be rapidly regene rated.*
From a DFE perspective, renewable materials are attractive be cause

*One could argue that even fossil fuels are “renewable” except that the time span
required is much longer.

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