Designers and Manufacturers Should Rethink and Redesign their Materials

There is rising unease about throwing out plastic products as well as the accumulation of plastic products in our oceans and landfills. This poses problems for all species in the environment, such as animals becoming tangled in smaller products, organisms consuming the products, or transferring chemicals directly to humans in the surrounding environment. Plastic products being dumped into landfills is not sustainable for our present and future environment. A small amount of fossil fuels is being used to create plastic products. The fossil fuels are practically wasted because the products are cheaply made and are thrown out shortly after purchase. Depleting the amount of fossil fuels, rapidly filling up landfills, and manufacturing briefly used plastic products is not sustainable for our environment. Increasing the amount of recycling, cutting down on plastic production, and reducing on the amount of littering are all valuable solutions to cut down the amount of plastic in landfills. (Thompson, Moore, vom Saal,

Plastic – an American-made synthetic material, renowned and praised for its almost indestructible quality and versatility, yet on the contrary has had detrimental consequences on our environment and ourselves. It is quite amazing to observe how plastic has completely changed our way of life. In Susan Freinkel’s book “Plastic: a Toxic Love Story” she writes about the effects of plastic on our world. The author points out, a commonly overlooked fact, that plastic is literally everywhere. Plastic is in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the cups we drink from, and sometimes even the ground we walk on. Two chemical bonds made in a laboratory have forever changed the way we live, through small commodities like

The author proves the falsehood of the long known assumption that plastic is a threat to our planet. By citing the research done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the author convinces his readers that not only are plastic bags not harmful as people think, but also beneficial. This surprises his audience and shows them how exaggerated the cries of environmentalists, which gets the readers wondering what else have they falsely believed in and what other information are paper-bags advocates hiding from them, and that pulls them into the argument and intrigues them further. Additionally, Summers lists the harmful consequences of using reusable bags by presenting research results and observations. This alarms the audience and raises concern in their

At Penn State’s University Park campus alone, “students and guests use approximately 495,000 polystyrene containers annually” (“Green2Go Box”). These polystyrene containers have a negative impact on the local and global environment; the production of polystyrene involves hydrofluorocarbons, a known ozone layer depleting substance (“Ozone Layer Protection”). Additionally, polystyrene is neither recyclable by Penn State’s Physical Plant nor is it biodegradable (“Recycling and Composting”). It is also the most littered waste product; polystyrene makes up 10 to 40 percent of litter found in streams, despite only accounting for 1 percent of all waste (Bruno, “Polystyrene foam is bad”). Littered polystyrene leaches chemicals into ecosystems, harming animals that attempt to consume it. The millions of polystyrene containers the Penn State Dining Commons have used is either littered into the community or directed to a landfill. Penn State Food Services’s removal or polystyrene containers from the dining commons would result in a significant reduction of this waste.

“Recycle”, “reuse”, “repurpose” are words often spoken as the world grapples with the ever increasing burden daily life is placing on the environment. Everything - from the cars we drive, to the electricity used to power appliances and other conveniences, to the clothes we wear and the foods we consume – affects the environment around us. Natural resources are being depleted and the purity of the air we breathe and the water we drink is being compromised – a result of creativity and progress in an effort to improve our lives. Throughout the past several years, the government has offered tax credits to promote implementation of products aimed at reducing environmental impacts.

“Green and Clean” is an article written by Jennifer Weeks published on August 1, 2014. The article informs the audience about how “chemists are finding new ways to save energy, cut waste, and boost safety. In the excerpt from Chemistry: Green and Clean, the author, Jennifer Weeks, builds an argument that green chemists are working to develop a field of chemistry that can replace polluting technologies. Jennifer Weeks uses evidence, reasoning, and stylistic elements to describe how green chemists identify chemical products or processes that are toxic and wasteful, change chemical processes so they are less energy-consuming, and swap out harmful ingredients for nontoxic alternatives.

In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things written by Michael Braungart and William McDonough try to recreate a new way to design and manufacture things by rethinking the basic parameters in order to establish a new, better system of manufacturing, one that will ultimately replenish and restore the earth, instead of destroying it like the one that is being used now(1). The authors state that we, as humans, should approach the concept of design and manufacture in a new way that will make the whole process of manufacture, consumption, and waste a process of that works in sync with both humans and nature, rather than damaging the nature. The authors start of by criticizing the current industrial framework as fairly primitive. It is formed over one main

The infrastructure is not at present in place to permit efficient recycling of materials from old product to new. These materials include metal, polymers, refrigerant gas and glass. This situation is due largely to a culture of indifference from Governmental and regulatory agencies at present. The use of natural capital is unsustainable with the culture of supply of what the customer wants and not what they need, this is at present a cultural problem. This has a detrimental impact on the ecosystem.

avoid plastic as a whole will do us all a great deal of good. If we don't, we will surely

There is an array of options and approaches to healthy living. The text book written by Rebecca J Donatelle, Health the Basics, suggests ways of shopping to save the planet by purchasing products with minimal packaging, reusable material, free of dyes, sulfates, or parabens, and even purchasing products already pre-recycled. The U.S. government’s website for the Environmental Protection Agency provides information on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Lifestyle choices anywhere from using old food to make compost and reduce waste to donating reusable goods such as clothing, toys, and electronics can help improve the health of both the individual making these choices and the community around them. This site also offers those willing to recycling links on how to properly dispose of paper, plastics, batteries, glass, oil, and tires –all of which enter ecosystems every day and can hold potentially detrimental results. The website Earth911 is much like the government site, however its user friendly design and approach allows site visitors to immediately see the being environmentally healthy is essential to healthy living in general because what we do directly effects how we live. By sharing the harsh reality of how we affect the environment, Earth911 hopes to shows its clever ideas for healthy environmental living such as having a garden, traveling wisely, and living eco-smart

3. To regulate the process of accommodation of new and reconstruction of operating industrial objects under the conditions of rigid environmental restrictions. (uvm.edu)

The industry can be very susceptible to environmental issues together with other manufacturers. With the advent of campaigns toward saving the environment and “going green”, the society is now more concerned with how the industry’s wastes and other by-products are being managed. Using recycled materials and recycling one’s wastes can affect the industry’s over-all image as an environmental advocate.

However, The Upcycle goes way beyond this by suggesting the design of products that will not just give minimal impact to the environment, but give maximum beneficial impact to the environment. This means that it can decompose in the soil without giving off harmful chemicals, or it can be recycled completely.

Designing and using sustainable products is the important topic which all human should seriously consider about. The technological development in recent decades significantly improved the average standard of living world widely while that destroyed natural environments on the earth. The speaker John P. O’Grady in TED Talk pointed out that how unsustainable products have terribly contributed to the devastation of the environment. For instance, Mr. O’Grady showed the audience that the study of marine pollution and metaphorically expressed the situation as the toilet which has not been flushed for a long time. Besides that, there are many other problems causing negative impacts. These environmental destructions harm not only nature but also the

This research question aims to think deeper on the circumstances of the overuse of plastic and paper, and what could happen more to the animals/birds, our environment, and our bodies if consumers keep on using plastic and paper products. This research question should be asked to raise awareness to users and most importantly designers, so they consider using other eco friendly material in designing their products.