Sustainable design merely passes environmental problems on to the next generation, argues designer Jalila Essaïdi in her Dezeen 15 manifesto. Instead, we should accept that nature will find inventive ways of dealing with our waste.
"Sustainable design strategies might seem to make sense in our current capitalist system," she writes. "Yet they merely pass the problem on to the next generation," postponing the inevitable "assimilation of anthropogenic effects, processes, objects, and materials by nature."
Instead, designers should "equip nature with the diversity of trash it needs to work its magic faster," she argues. Left to its own devices, nature will turn "poisons into pistons of exotic engines," writes the Dutch designer in her manifesto. Dezeen 15 is a digital festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th birthday. Between 1 and 19 November, 15 different creatives from around the world will propose ideas for making the world a better place over the next 15 years. See the line-up here.

Consumerism, materialism and waste
A bizarre disruption of ecological thinking has seized our thought processes: the ecological vision of the apocalypse. It is a vision fuelled by current environmental threats that have dominated recent news headlines.
Beginning in the 60s, eco-communities predicted a new phase for this planet, transitioning people from an era of abundance to one of scarcity. The most radical thinkers among them advocate for depop...