“The Problem is the Solution”

“The problem is the solution” is the second design principle in Bill Mollison’s well-known “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”. The book was first published in 1988 and is still the title of reference in the permaculture world, a bible of some sort.
“The problem is the solution” basically means that every element we perceive as negative can be of positive use if we’re creative enough.

Here is an example of how someone’s waste can be someone else’s resource. We came across this dumped tyre on a walking track in Omeo near the beautiful Alpine National Park, VIC.

Tyres as a problem

Tyres are a huge waste problem. They are made of rubber but also contain volatile chemicals and heavy metals; they release toxic emissions when burnt; and they are hardly recyclable and obviously non-biodegradable. Also, we indeed tend to see them in unexpected places. In 2013-2014, 50+ million scrap tyres entered the Australian waste stream and we only recovered 5% locally.
This number even accounts for neither the legal or illegal dumps such as in Stawell, Victoria that cumulates an estimated 9-10 million tyres and in Northern Tasmania with yet another 1.3 million, nor the tyres discarded in the bush or the sea like the one below[1].