Now listen to part of a lecture from an environmental science class.
OK, so think about a product that you use every day around your house, like carpet, for example. Carpeted floors get worn and stained from people walking on them all the time. And eventually they need to be replaced, right? Typically most people rip up the old carpet and throw it away, and then put down new carpet. And all that old carpet ends up in a garbage dumpster.
But fortunately, there have been many recent innovations in carpet manufacturing. In particular some companies have started to reuse old carpet fibers to create new carpeting. This process involves shaving off the soft Top layer of the old carpet. These nylon fibers from the top layer are then cleaned and died and woven into yarn to be used in manufacturing a new carpet.
So when your carpet wears out, you call one of these companies and they come and not only put down new carpet, they take your old worn out carpet back to their factory where they'll use it to create new carpet. So since the raw material can be reused, in this case, the nylon in the carpets, the company saves money and there's less impact on the environment, because the raw materials needed to create the product are preserved. And because they're preserved, there's less disposal of waste. Since the old carpets are recovered and reused instead of being burned or dumped in a landfill, which is typically the end of the product’s life.
Explain how the example in the lecture illustrate the concept of closed loop design.
Begin to prepare your response after the beep.