Minimise it

Product Re-Design

The ultimate goal of Zero Waste is to prevent waste being produced in the first place through the redesign of products.

There is huge potential for designers to help develop more sustainable technology and materials. 

Design for Environment (DfE) principles include:

• Select low-impact materials
• Avoid hazardous materials
• Choose cleaner production processes
• Maximise energy and waste efficiencies
• Design for waste minimisation through: source reduction, extending product life, product re-use, product remanufacture, materials recycling, design for minimal consumption, minimising the impacts of disposal.

Examples of companies working on Design for Environment principles:

Textiles & Clothing:

Kathmandu, the New Zealand outdoor clothing specialist store, stocks several products made from Ecofleece®, a fleece fabric made from a blend of 89% recycled polyester fibre.

By using this fibre, every jacket saves 20 plastic bottles from going to landfill.
Recycled fibres use 60 times less plastic and in manufacturing, discharge 17 times fewer pollutants, six times less sulphur dioxide and four times less carbon dioxide.

The process:

• Clear plastic soda bottles are cleaned and ground into flakes.
• The flakes are melted, purified and made into pellets.
• These pellets are then further broken down and extruded into a usable form that has a texture similar to cotton wool.
• This fibre is then spun into a yarn.
• The yarn is knitted and undergoes a series of finishing treatments that may include ‘dyeing to colour’, ‘antimicrobial’ and ‘wicking ‘ applications. These treatments are usually chemically bound to the polyester and so cannot be washed out. They remain for the life of the fibre.
  
  Go to www.kathmandu.co.nz for more details.

Packaging

The New Zealand Potato Plate Co makes disposables from waste potato starch - a naturally produced material which is 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. They were winners of the 1999 New Zealand Environmental Packaging Award. The products are:

• Suitable for all fast food
• Microwave re-heatable
• Freezeable
• Not harmful if eaten
• Countless applications
• Competitive prices
• Excellent insulation qualities
• Fully degrades in days after use

www.potatoplates.com

Government intervention

One of the main drivers behind more serious attention to Design for Environment has been intervention by national governments, particularly in Europe and Japan.

Environmental policies include:

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
  eg. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive from the European Union.
   
• Resource taxes (to stimulate more resource-efficient production and the better utilisation of recycled materials.)

For more information refer to:

• Design and Environment: A global guide to designing greener goods, Helen Lewis & John Gertsakis.
• ’Better by Design’, Clive Grinyer, Resource: A New Perspective on Waste, Issue 11 (July - August 2003), P.32 (
• Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough & Michael Braungart

What's happening in Japan?

(Excerpt from July 2003 Issue of Resource: A New Perspective on Waste, ’Better By Design’, Clive Grinyer. Details below)

The Japanese have exploited the strong relationship between government and business to set up a national system of recycling centres funded by coalitions of electronics manufacturers. Legislation has forced all Japan’s famous electronics companies to take steps to eliminate hazardous materials and provide for the disassembly of electronic products ...... The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry hasset up initial legislation to cover four product types: TV’s, air-conditioning equipment, fridges and washing machines. By clearly commununicating the benefits of recycling to a society willing to accept its argument and suffer what the Japanese describe as "a general feeling of shame" about waste, both supplier and social behaviour has been changed. Though yet to cover more difficult areas such as PCs and eventually automobiles, the knowledge gained from disassembly is driving many changes in the design process, and retraining of engineers and designers to understand and specify recycled materials is now widespread.

Japanese manufacturers are also looking at new materials. Panasonic uses large magnesium die castings to replace pressed-steel components, as it finds this an easy and cost-efficient material to recycle..... Despite the freedom of plastic, designers are using metals such as titanium in the design of computer laptops to remove the negative perceptions of plastic. Designing TV’s and phones in recycling friendly materials such as magnesium will be attractive to many designers.

For more information contact:

Resource
PO Box 102
Bristol BS99 3WX
Ph: +44 (0)117 907 4107
F: +44(0)117 903 0698
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