The Blue heap

In our modern way of life we produce an enormous amount of waste. Either at production level, transport or electricity

Say that you, as entrepreneur, press sunflower oil. To press this oil you have to buy expensive filters from France, because that's where the best filters come from. You need new filters every year because the plastic gets torn. The factory doesn't take the used filters back. So you throw them on a heap in the back of your plot. You send the manufacturer an angry letter because you don't know what to do with all those heaps of used filters. The only alternative is to sell them to the destructor of the incinerator , who will give you Blue in return.

The pile keeps growing. The stuff isn't degradable. The acquisition of these filters are beginning to weigh on your budget. Because, even though the filters aren't re-usable, the factory wants to be paid in Green. Their reasoning is: We buy our raw materials with Green, so we want Green for our products, otherwise our books don't balance.

This seems a ridiculous example, but any example where the end-product can't be recycled, will give you the same result, the same problem. The producer looks at what he buys and the buyer looks at his waste, and they both say THEY are right. But who is right?

It's not about the finding the person breaks the cycle, it's about who restores it.

There is no "destructor" who buys the stuff for Green. The manufacturer can't or doesn't want to buy it back for Green. Anybody who buys the product, chooses to go down a road without escape.

So we'll have to count Blue. Whoever handles the raw materials thus that they can't be recycled, is heaping up Blue.

This Blue heap means that you buy in Green, but sell in Blue. Inevitably you'll get a shortage of Green, and indeed, a surplus of Blue. Whoever chooses to stop recycling, gets stuck with Blue. What are the consequences?

You can't go bankrupt in colourcash, and you can borrow Green somewhere. But your books are available for whoever wants to see them via the Internet. You will be under moral obligation to produce more environmentally friendly. If you are prepared to improve your production processes, slowly but surely, the community will be prepared to fund you. The Blue you still produce is forgiven, but if you don't show any goodwill to improve this situation, people will criticize you.

Anybody with a bit of entrepreneurial feeling takes a look at their business. Oh Oh, I'm stuck with a bunch of products for which I can't find a destructor. Before long I'll turn into a Smurf!

That is why it's important to find each other. Constructor,consumer and destructor. It's possible to live like this, because people have been doing it for years. It's called permaculture.