5. Consider ecological factors when specifying processing. Important here are pollution
of all kinds, energy consumption, and efficiency of material usage. For
example, forming operations such as rolling and forging use less material (and
generate less scrap) than cutting operations. There may also be important differences
in energy consumption.
6. Packaging is an important area for resource conservation and pollution reduction.
Reusable cartons, and the use of recycled materials for packaging, are two
areas receiving increasing attention. Perhaps the ultimate in ecologically desirable
packaging is that commonly used ice cream container, the cone.
The matter of protecting our environment is a deadly serious one. As the late
Adlai Stevenson once said, “We travel together, passengers on a little space ship,
dependent on its vulnerable supplies of air and soil . . . preserved from annihilation
only by the care, the work, and I will say the love, we give our fragile craft.”