RECYCLING

It is easy to associate our fast growing standard of living with the huge amount of products, the huge amount of packaging used in our daily life. If we make statistical investigation and analysis of the amount of packaging, materials, resources used for our daily production, the result can be amazing. We’ve already got a similar experience through ecological footprint.

The main theme of these videos is to give packaging a new life through converting packaging waste to new products. In simple words, they are all about recycling. From these 7 videos, I learned not only the different processed of materials being recycled, but also some thinking about how to use materials more efficiently and minimize the waste. As a designer, our design should always keep with issues of current situation. Environment issues are hot topics in recent years. If we ignore these issues, our design will never be acknowledged by the society.

The processes of materials being recycled are quite similar. On the whole, it can be concluded to the process of sort – clean – combine – create new. Plastic is separated according to what kind of plastic the packaging is manufactured from which include PE, PP, PET, and PS… New products from waste plastic include pipes and children’s toys. Glass is sorted according to colors. Fragments which are smaller than 15mm can be sorted correctly and on the basis of light absorbed, computer can determine what has to be removed. Waste glass can make new bottles through blowing. Paper is sorted according to paper quality while impurities and printing are removed. Cardboard box, newspaper can be produced from waste paper. Tissue, toilet rolls also contain high proportion of waste paper between 60% and 70%. A can that is return to the production loop can be recycled without any quality losses. Examples of recycling from waste tin include railway and car body. Manufacture aluminum sheets which can be printed as packaging require only 1/20 of the energy otherwise needed for the production of new goods and production waste will return to production loop for the next production. For beverage cartons, Plastic and aluminum separate from cardboard, the paper fraction is removed and process to premium waste paper. The remaining of plastic and aluminum are subsequently used in cement production.

Before watching these videos, I’ve already got an opinion that we should combine our design with our environment. We should always think how can we use minimum material to make a product and is there exists any alternative choices of new materials? There are many ways to satisfy customers through our design; the hardest thing is to choose the best,

Luckily, we see people pay more and more attention to protect our environment, to save resources, to recycling and there are more and more ecodesigners. As an industrial designer, we are important to translate our learning to materials and environment to people around us through our product.