From Waste to the Circular Economy Through History. eBook. 

English version. Sometimes it happens that we are convinced that some processes, products or services are the result of recent discoveries, that some strands of thought such as recycling, green economy, circular economy, renewable energy or the function of plastics, among supporters and contraries, have been created in recent years.

All these things, such as the seas polluted by plastic, the garbage in the streets, the separate collection that does not work as it should, global warming, vehicular traffic and fossil-burning boilers that pollute the air, the hope of hydrogen, wind and sun for cleaner energy and the struggle at the increase of temperatures, seem so close in time.

The media, social networks and people discuss about topics like climate change, rationalization of the use of products, reuse and refusal of disposables, sustainable mobility, a less unbalanced diet regarding meat, deforestation for carbon balance, desertification and disruption of natural habitats with the consequence of new ones and unknown viral strains that threaten man.

That's therefore a bombardment of news, which seem to have been created all together developing as a chain that reinforces our sense of restlessness.

Through hopes and anxieties we try to understand the evolution of the intertwining between environment-consumption-production-energy-waste-food, as if no one before today realised how much the correct management of these phases is indispensable for our future and that of our children.

But nothing seems certain as it is in this period. Nothing seems to have an evolution from the past that makes us understand how to face the future by relying on the experiences of those who have preceded us. Everything seems new and unknown.

Nonetheless it is perhaps the load of news that pervades our daily life, in which we sometimes do not have the time to deepen and weigh things, which makes us think that there is no past and that everything happens today.

In reality there are many things in our life that seem recent or relatively new and which we await the arrival as the solution to actual problems. However, most of the time they are known to the historical paths.

Maybe they have been sketched; used, abandoned and then resumed. Maybe they were previously immature and today they can return vigorously thanks to technological advances. Maybe they were non-essential in the past but useful today.

We are talking about scientific discoveries, indispensable materials, innovative industrial processes, initiatives to protect the environment, sustainable economy and attention to the environment. This happened during a historical period in which none of this was considered really important, but which marked a beginning, through far-sighted and out of the ordinary men, who stubbornly put a small seed tha made it flourish creating a continuity with modern times after years or centuries.

In this book we start from the medieval period in order to link our present with our past and we continue throughout the years, thanks to characters who worked in completely different sectors, up to the present days, with what still looks like the future for us: hydrogen.

It is not a history book, but a story in episodes which are drawn from the life and work of famous or completely unknown people, analysing the innovative contribution they gave to progress, both small and large, that is still useful for our lives today.

Many other characters will be presented, all united by the certainty that today we are where man wanted to be, for better or for worse, and that nothing is born by chance, suddenly.

Category: Books - ebooks - recycling - rmix