Back to a New Beginning

It is no secret that our environment is in trouble, we have been looking at the problems we are facing for the past few weeks. It is also no secret that in order to change the future of our environment we must make changes. But they can’t be subtle changes, or slow changes that occur over time. Janine Benyus quotes Cooper saying that “it won’t do to just tweak the current system and hope that we’ll evolve…Instead we must replace portions of our Type I economy with portions of a Type III economy until the whole thing mirrors the natural world.” The first dilemma we are faced with is deciding where to start. I suggest starting at the beginning, and according to the chapter How Will We Conduct Business the first step is to use waste as a resource.

In a previous blog I mentioned that sustainability does not start and stop with the production of the good but stays with the good for the entirety of its life-cycle. Sustainability applies to how a good is used, what is required to take care of it (i.e. clothes require laundering) and extends to the disposal of the good.  According to T.E. Graedel in Industrial Ecology

One of the most important concepts of industrial ecology is that, like the biological system, it rejects the concept of waste. Dictionaries define waste as useless or worthless material. In nature, however, nothing is eternally discarded; in various ways, all materials are reused, generally with great efficiency. Nature has adopted this approach because acquiring these materials from their reservoirs is costly in terms of energy and resources and thus something to be avoided whenever possible…Hence, materials and products that are obsolete should be termed residues rather than wastes, and it should be recognized that wastes are merely residues that our economy has not yet learned to use efficiently.

I think it is crucial to acknowledge that we have gotten in the habit of thinking that once we have disposed of a good it is no longer our problem. Then whose problem is it? The earth can’t handle the waste we force upon it and it shouldn’t have to. It is our responsibility to advocate on Earth’s behalf.

            The goal is to turn current waste into resources and implement strategies that prevent waste from building up again and again by turning the disposed goods back into usable resources immediately. Using principles suggested by Benyus I think that the best ways to turn waste back into resources is first by making recycled products appealing. I think that this is up to the designers. Consumers look to designers when they are looking to find the current and future trends. If designers make recycled materials functional and attractive, consumers will follow their lead. I also think that it is up to designers to design with the environment in mind. A designer has to consider the products entire life-cycle when making design decisions. They are responsible for choosing materials that are easy to care for to reduce wastes like water and energy when it comes to laundering, and they are responsible for choosing materials that are either easy to break down, durable enough to last, or easy to manipulate into new materials so that their clothing is easy to recycle.

            My design concept is based off of the example set by a few companies that have begun to take back their durable goods at the end of their life-cycle to repurpose them into new functional products. I think that every company should be required to do this. Clothing brands like Urban Renewal already take old articles of clothing and manipulate them into new one-of-a-kind garments. I think that clothing stores should offer benefits to customers for returning their used/worn clothing, and then should take the used/worn clothing and reuse it. This is not a new idea, but I believe that it is an effective one that should be required to be implemented by law. I think that this design concept implements both the ideas discussed above. If designers design for the environment then it will be easy for them to take the returned materials and recycle them into new goods. It also challenges designers to design classic durable pieces that consumers won’t have to return because they can continue to wear them forever. I think that this is extremely important when designing staple pieces like the little black dress, and articles of clothing that are always being sold—like jeans. I think that the design concept also fully challenges the designers to step up and set this as a trend. Enthusiasm is a huge part in winning over a crowd and if designers were to implement these strategies willingly then there wouldn’t need to be laws created to force them into action and they would have an enthusiastic following.

            I think the important thing about my design concept is that it is not necessarily a new idea, but it is not a widely implemented idea either. The idea has been proven to work, now it just needs to be enforced and promoted. Like I mentioned earlier, it cannot be a slow change. Designers need to agree that this is something worth doing and take the initiative to become sustainable from beginning to end so that the end turns into a new beginning.