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Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is a holistic approach to environmental, resource and climate protection that takes into account ecological, economic and social issues. C2C sees humans as potential beneficials. Instead of making things a little less bad, we want to make a positive contribution to us humans and our environment. Why we need this shift in thinking is described in the C2C school of thought. The C2C design concept describes how we need to rethink and redesign all products and processes to become beneficial. The core of this is the selection of suitable and healthy materials in the design of products that can circulate eternally in the biological or technical cycle. The prerequisite for a C2C world is the exclusive use of renewable energy, the recycling of water and compliance with social standards.

All products must be designed and manufactured to circulate in at least one of these two loops. In this way, resources no longer become waste but, after their current use, become nutrients again for something new. Consumer goods whose materials wear out – such as tires that are worn down or textile fibers that are outgrown – must be 100% biodegradable so that they can circulate in the biological cycle. Raw materials from used products must be taken back and preserved in the same quality so that they become part of the technical cycle. You can find out more about the two circuits here.

For materials to circulate in cycles, they must not contain harmful or toxic substances and must be suitable for the specific use of the product. For example, a plastic can be a suitable material for the technical cycle if it does not contain any pollutants and can be recycled again and again in the same quality. However, a plastic is only suitable for the biological cycle if it is completely biodegradable.

What is now called the circular economy is, in principle, a form of waste management. A product has reached the end of its life cycle and we ask ourselves: What can we still do with the components of the product so that it does not completely become waste? How can we recycle the product or components of it? The problem with this is that many products are designed in such a way that they are not suitable for true recycling. For example, because different materials are bonded together in such a way that they can no longer be separated from each other without leaving residue. Cradle to Cradle therefore starts with the design of products and considers the entire life cycle. When we select and process materials for products in such a way that they can be reused again and again, we close loops completely.

Cradle to grave, meaning “from beginning to end”. The term describes our current linear economy: Materials/raw materials are extracted and built into our products with mostly short-sighted design. In the end, most of them end up in landfills or even in waste incineration plants and are thus permanently withdrawn from use. Both the extraction of the materials and their disposal cause long-term damage to the environment and to us humans.

Cradle to Cradle (also abbreviated to C2C) is an approach to a continuous and consistent circular economy. It consists of the school of thought and the design concept. The C2C school of thought aims to provide a fundamentally new view of the world and our human actions. It does not conceive of humans as pests, but as beneficial organisms on earth that can leave a positive footprint. The design concept states that appropriate usage scenarios must be defined for each product and service. Only then can healthy and suitable materials be selected to circulate continuously in biological and technical cycles.

The C2C school of thought describes why we need to completely rethink how to solve environmental, resource and climate problems equally and simultaneously. The C2C design concept describes how Cradle to Cradle is implemented in practice and what the approach means for the design and manufacture of products.

>> more about the school of thought
>> more about the design concept

In common use of language, recycling is understood as the reuse of waste products or their materials. In the German Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act recycling is being defined as “a recovery operation by which waste is reprocessed into products, materials, or substances either for the original purpose or for other purposes; it includes the reprocessing of organic materials but does not include energy recovery or reprocessing into materials intended for use as fuel or for backfilling.”

In practice, the recycling implemented today is usually “downcycling”. This means that technical quality is lost in the recycling process of the materials.

For example, old plastic bottles become fleece sweaters or truck tarps become bags. This process is not reversible because, for example, a fleece sweater cannot be turned back into PET bottles. On the contrary, each additional supposed recycling step (e.g. from fleece sweater to cleaning rag) reduces the quality of the starting material. As a result, raw materials inevitably become waste at some point.

Recycling according to the cradle to cradle principle, on the other hand, aims to ensure that all materials (raw and secondary materials) remain of consistent quality, even after multiple reuse. Already in the design and manufacturing process, consideration is given to how the materials used can become a resource again for the next product after it has been used. In this way, products can be broken down into single-variety starting materials after use and recycled.

Bioplastics are considered a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics. A distinction is made between biodegradable plastics and biobased plastics. When plastics are partly made from renewable raw materials such as sugar cane or wheat, they are referred to as bio-based plastics. However, they are not automatically biodegradable. With biodegradable plastics, on the other hand, the starting material does not matter; they just have to be biodegradable, as the name suggests.

The term “negative footprint” is widely used, especially as a marketing tool. Historically, it aims to place responsibility for climate and resource protection with the individual.

But on the one hand, politics and business can and must also act as much greater levers through framework conditions and future-proof innovations. Second, reducing a negative impact toward neutrality is the wrong goal – every living thing on the planet emits emissions. And we have already done too much irreversible damage for this goal to be enough to create a livable future.

Instead, all areas of society must contribute to having the greatest possible positive economic, ecological and social impact. This only works if we prioritize eco-effectiveness over eco-efficiency.

If there are any other terms that are unclear to you, take a look at our lexicon.

A literature list on C2C is currently in progress. As soon as we have completed it, we will link it here.