Cradle to Cradle uncovers the hidden problems with manufacturing, how they affect our planet, and how we can help by becoming more eco-efficient.

The last time your shoes got a hole in them, did you just throw them away?

What about when you dropped your phone and cracked the screen? Chances are, you just bought a newer one instead – and it's not really your fault.

Often it's much easier and sometimes cheaper to replace something rather than fix it. Why? Because the things we buy are designed to get broken and replaced.

Pretty much everything that is manufactured is destined to one day end up in the trash.

Products aren't just poorly made, but it's just too challenging to put many safely back into the environment.

Michael Braungart is a former Greenpeace activist and professor of chemistry at Erasmus University Rotterdam, while William McDonough is a green architect and designer who has worked with companies like Nike, Ford, and Herman Miller.

In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, the authors draw on their joint expertise to describe how the manufacturing industry can be adjusted to be both more sustainable and more efficient.