Eco-Redesign

The Eco-Redesign project was a short but enlightening one as it really showed me which parts of a product and what stages of the design and manufacturing process are most damaging to our environment. Our group disassembled an old blender and obtained the below results with the aid of an online tool called Greenfly.

The online analysis made it obvious that two main parts of the product had and were causing a large amount of environmental impact due to the extraction and processing methods needed to obtain these materials. These materials included the copper wire used through the motor assembly and the plastics used in the main blender body such as the polycarbonate jug.

Sustainable Consumption

Annie Leonard's story of stuff videos never cease to enlighten me. Even the simplest things in life like like bottled water does so much unknown damage and no one even seems to mind because it doesn't directly affect their way of life.
 

I must admit that after watching both the story of bottled water and the story of electronics, I realised that I, like most play a role in that sort of behaviour. While I've always been of the opinion that tap water tastes better than bottled water, I'd been a victim of clever marketing and had myself convinced that the bottled water was somehow healthier. For this reason I'd always finding myself carrying around bottled water due to convenience and the assumed nutritional difference.
 

While I'd always believed that the price of bottled water was to do with the convenience of the product I'd never come to the conclusion that it was up to 2000 times the price of typical tap water and the real comparison to other products played a great part in solidifying the need for a change in my habits when it comes to buying bottled water.
 

The issue of design for the dump and planned obsolescence is one which I come across far too often as the quality of electronics just seems to be lowering and lowering as new models continue to arrive. Working in retail and selling electronics designed for home offices has really enlightened me on the issues and damage being caused by products and their marketing. None as much as the common inkjet printer though. If the fact that these printed barely last longer than the 1 year warranty they're sold with isn't enough, they're mostly cheaper than the ink cartridges used to run them and this causes the most disturbing issue I see. Customers constantly coming into the store to buy ink refills and leaving with a whole new printer because it was cheaper. The way these products are design and marketed makes is near impossible to convince a customer otherwise as they don't understand the environmental impact of their actions.
 

This idea of manufactured design is something I'm not a fan of but also can't help but play a part in. Industrial designers who work for such companies are simply doing their job and just like the consumers buying their products, they're not seeing the full impact of their actions. I'd like to say I'm going to think more before purchasing new electronic products and try to keep them until they actually stop working but chances are that I won't. It's at least a comforting start knowing that I have Annie Leonard's words playing over in my head reminding me of what I'm doing to someones life elsewhere in the world.

Video:

www.storyofelectronics.com

www.storyofbottledwater.com

Recycling: Giving Packaging a New Life

Recycling is by no means a new concept to the developed world but unfortunately, with humans it has always been a case of "out of sight, out of mind". The majority of us stop feeling bad about our waste as soon as someone else has collected it. It's for this exact reason that while the technology used to perform the recycling process has existed for at least the past decade, we are still not taking responsibility for the recycling and reuse of our everyday waste.

"Giving Packaging a New Life" is a video series which highlights the ways in which all different materials are sorted and processed in order to be given a new life as a recycled product. It's a display of the technology at work behind the scenes trying to  save us from ourselves and save us from the already mountain high piles of trash which cover our planet.

While recycling gives new life to old products that we no longer have a use for, it's also a process which can be very damaging to the environment. It's for this reason that recycling certainly doesn't come without a cost. The large machinery used to sort, break down and reuse the recycled materials all use a large amount of energy throughout the entire process.

Being an industrial design student at this point in time, I feel that I've inherited all the damage that we've done to our planet over the past few centuries. While it comes as a bit of a burden, it's also a wake up call for something to be done. Not only do products need to be more environmentally friendly and easier to recycle, but theres also room to improve the recycling infrastructure to both have a lesser impact on the environment and to make the process one which more people follow and adhere to for generations to come.

Ecological Footprint

 While I found the results surrounding my carbon footprint interesting they were hardly surprising. I've always grown up knowing I'm using too much of everything but it's something I've grown accustomed too and can't really force myself to stop.
The results show that I'm above the Australian average in all categories but none more so than my food footprint which could be contributed towards the large amount of  meat, seafood and dairy in my diet.

While making adjustments to how I shop and what appliances I use and when, I know I could easily lower my housing footprint as well as my goods and services footprint back to an acceptable level. My carbon footprint on the other hand may be harder to reduce as it would mainly be the result of commuting a few hours a day to get to class as well as my tendency to travel overseas often.

I'd always known I was consuming far more than I should but now knowing the fact that if the rest of the world lived my lifestyle then we'd require over 8 earths is definitely something I'll be thinking about in the future.