Resources often challenge innovators. Finding unlimited free resources solves a big challenge to innovation.
Waste is innovation waiting to happen. Best of all, waste is a free resource. If the waste is pollution it is less than free. There is a benefit from using it and people will often pay you to get rid of the waste.
There is no waste in nature. The output of one natural process is the input of another on and on until it goes full circle and is used again where it started. This is one of the core principles of the Blue Economy.
Waste is another way of saying,
I don't know how to use this.
Everything is a resource if you know what to do with it. The missing ingredient to turn a resource into a tool is information and there is infinite information. You just need to learn how to think. Predictive Innovation will help you to think better.
The better you are at seeing resources disguised as waste the more resources you have available. Trash is an obvious form of waste. Most people recognize wasted energy. What other things can be waste? I find these 6 categories useful:
- Matter
- Energy
- Space
- Time
- People
- Information
What are all the ways those items can be wasted? To answer that question you need the Predictive Innovation Alternatives. There are always 36 Alternatives for anything. So there are at least 36 distinct types of waste for each of those 6 items resulting in 216 Types of Waste. Eliminating that waste or better yet, finding a valuable use for it, are innovation opportunities waiting to be utilized. This table describes each type.
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