The legendary song "Circle of Life" from the Lion King was used to symbolize how nature takes away life in order to create new life. But this circular pattern is seen across the board in the Earth’s systems. Plants grow and take up nutrients. Once they die, they decompose, and these nutrients are given back to the soil. Nutrients from the bottom of the ocean floor are pulled up by waves to more shallow water where they become food for organisms, which will eventually die and sink to the bottom, only to be recycled again.  And the list could continue indefinitely with the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, etc.

This brings up the question of why we rely on a linear form of production. We continually extract large amounts of raw product, use them to make goods, and then we discard these goods into landfills where they are designed to stay indefinitely. We hear about resources such as oil, metals, or even food becoming scarce; however, these materials never leave the system. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it simply changes forms or locations. 

We extract the oil from its reserves within the Earth and then burn it, changing it into carbon dioxide. Metals we extract from the ground pile up in landfills because it is usually cheaper to continue extracting more metal than to simply reuse the old material. About 30% of our food produced is wasted and put in a landfill where it is unable to decompose and give its nutrients back to the system in a usable form. 

To move towards this more circular model of production, we have to take into account the "Cradle-to-Cradle" mindset. This means that when creating products, the responsibility is not lost once it leaves the manufacturing plant or is purchased. The manufacturer must take responsibility of the whole life cycle of the product. This requires designing with the intent to make the product easily broken down and reused or recycled and for consumers to become more responsible for what they are purchasing and throwing away.

Our linear production model was sufficient when resources were still abundant and had lower demands; however, with today’s economy, growing population, and demand for goods, there is no way to sustain our linear model. The problem with a linear model is that like a beginning, there is also an end.