Waste = Food!

Recycling has become more and more popular through recent years. However, the focus has been mainly on downcycling and it's time to make a shift more toward upcycling. Upcycling means creating a product that is worth as much or more than the original product. Designing products that allow upcycling should be is key. We need to understand that waste = food.

In the Cradle to Cradle video, they discuss how they set out to find a safe way to dye. In the end they succeeded, which allowed for their left over materials to be recycled and used for mulch for gardening. The product was just as useful and beneficial in it's second life as the first. In the article Cradle to Cradle, by McDonough and Braungart, it discusses the two type of metabolism, biological and technical. A biological nutrient is a product that is created to return to the biological cycle, meaning consumed by animals and microorganisms in the soil. The product goes back into the environment.

My idea is to make shoe boxes made from polylactic acid, potato and other vital nutrients. This would create more of a plastic like box, but much stronger, instead of cardboard. The plastic is not only stronger but more flexible so it doesn't snap or crack like normal plastic. It is 100% biodegradable and can be used as gardening soil once broken down. Most shoe boxes just go to waste because there is not much use for them after you buy the shoes. This shoe box with come of great use after the shoes are out. Once out in the right environment the shoebox will compost rapidly. The consumer themselves can use it
for their own garden. Or they can take it to a recycling bin that will be in most shoes stores which will ensure the products get their proper use for their second life. Another benefit to this shoe box is the material is less expensive than plastic so the overall production would cost less also. The waste of this product in coming back around in it's second life to create food for the environment.

Expanding Ideas

The concept of biomemicry opens up a world of ideas for future products. The focus is now on creating concepts/ideas for future products. There is only one way to ensure a sustainable future and that is to take action. Benyus provides great IE information to use your imagination and expand on.

Two more principles of IE that Jane Benyus addressed that I found important for my concept were "Gather and use energy efficiently" and "Optimizing Rather than maximizing." Gathering and using energy efficiently can be done by using current sunlight as renewable energy. In the book Textile futures: Fashion, design, and technology, Quinn explains how our products today mimic nature and how we use nature today. Peacocks feathers are not actually colorful, they look that way because of the material and how the sunlight reflects. Morphotex is a colorful textile made without dyes or pigments. It gains color by the reflection of light and the angle that the light hits. I think creating a clothing line that uses only materials like morphotex would be ideal because you aren't using the energy or chemicals that it requires to dye clothing. Using nature is one of the best ways to save on energy and materials.

"Optimizing rather than maximizing", discusses how our world today focuses of making products as fast as possible and getting them to the consumer as fast as possible. This creates no diversity and 85% of manufactured products quickly become waste so there has to be a better way to do this. In the book Sustainable Fashion & Textiles: Design Journey, Fletcher talks about the benefits of producing locally. Producing locally is a much slower process but it allows for diversity. Also it provides environmental benefits by reducing emission form transportation,  encouraging social engagement and creating diversity. I think selling the line of clothing made from materials like morphotex at these local stores would be an efficient idea.  This will allow for one-of-a-kind products that consumers are striving for these days. 

My Concepts for Survival

As we all know by now, our world and environment are headed toward a major crisis. Now, we have to think about a logical solution to this problem. The time has come to develop a concept and plan that leads to a solution. No solution will be reached by simply tweaking the current system. We must replace portions of our economy will another type of economy until the system mirrors the natural world.

Janine Benyus provides a number of principles of industrial ecology and goes into detail about each. However, there were a couple that stood out to me. The first being, "use waste as a resource." The bottom line is that our system needs more recycling loops to keep it from collapsing. We can't take more from the environment than is available to us so instead we must build a no waste economy by recycling and reusing. The goal is to create a system where a minimum of raw materials comes in the doors and minimum waste escapes. This can be achieved by companies working together. One companies wastes could be another companies resources. Companies can us their waste to heat peoples' homes. Apparel companies can take left over scraps, from fabrics such as denim, and use them to insulate homes and in result save energy. Any waste is valuable and can be used for something efficient. Another concept that could be used is lake-back laws. Companies will be required to take-back merchandise from the consumer and either repair the product or reuse the material on another product. This way the company can mostly survive off of recycled material and not have to waste materials. In return, the consumer will receive a bonus, like savings off next purchase, for taking back the products. Last, refilling containers on cosmetics and toiletries is already a concept that has been in action. However, this can be expanded greatly but eventually filling up containers like condiments and cleaning supplies so you can avoid wasting materials by buying a new bottle every time.

The second Jane Benyus' principle of industrial ecology that stood out to me was to "use materials sparingly." Organisms build for durability by building exactly what is needed, no more or no less. They do this by using the maximum amount of space in a minimum amount of material. One structure can have multiple purposes or functions. This will means that fewer products will have to be produced if you can achieve the same results from one product instead of having to use 3 or 4 different products. As the amount of functions of a product grow the size of the product shrinks. For example, the iPhone is now a phone, computer, tv, camera, etc. My concept would be a solar powered lunchbox for that could be heated or cooled. It would allow for your food to stay warm without having to use energy by heating it up or allow it to stay cool without having to use energy to refrigerate it.

If we can take in and learn from these lessons found in nature, there is hope that we can turn this crisis around for the better.