In future, the Jones will have to keep up with themselves

The Director of Switzerland's Product Life Institute, Walter Stahel has made a career telling corporations and governments that they can't go on using irreplaceable natural resources like there's no tomorrow. He wows the international conference circuit with exhortations to re-use, recycle and refurbish everything from cameras and photocopiers to cars and washing machines.

But Stahel isn't satisfied with converting the great and powerful; the ordinary public will have to change its ways too. He advises: "Consumer fickleness could still bury the planet. We have to make more of less, forget fashion and let the Jones keep up with themselves".

Words and picture for features in Ethix and Town and Country Planning magazines.