What’s in Your Recycle Bin?
Written by bethany on October 25th, 2010
What a wonderful world we live in. Every day is designed differently, sometimes the sun is shining brightly, sometimes the sky brings rain and nourishment to the environment and sometimes a natural fire burns acres to enhance new growth and life. Nature is complex and simple thriving in a revolving cycle unknown completely by man. Nothing in nature is wasteful. Bees cannot pollinate without flowers and flowers cannot grow without sun, water and soil. This circle of life depends on a healthy ecosystem. You may wonder how our ecosystem is doing, well, it must be doing good since you can go buy flowers and plant them for the bees in your neighborhood. Of course, if the flowers die you can always buy another crate. However, if you really stop to think about our ecosystem, you might wonder what happened to the empty crate and the “natural” soil you used for the flowers and if you should have recycled the empty plastic bag it came in, oh, can you recycle the crate? When you mindlessly took the items to the curb on trash day, where you thinking about the ecosystem?
“Houston we have a problem,” is an understatement when it comes to issues involving waste. According to the book, Cradle to Cradle, by McDonough and Braungart, our human industry has been in existence for little over a century and has brought a decline in almost every ecosystem on our planet. The authors go on to say, “Nature doesn’t have a design problem. People do.” Waste is a problem and cannot be taken lightly. Whether we mindlessly take trash to the curb or carry our recycle bin to the curb, this problem is growing and not going away. This is a time when designers can take a stand and truly influence decisions made to protect, preserve and enhance our built environments.
http://cartridgesforkids.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/landfill.jpg
Within the last decade, organizations and words have been thrown at the design industry. All of a sudden, everything is made “green”, “natural” and “sustainable.” It has our industry quite confused and makes me wonder if I should be LEED certified too! It’s like jumping on a “bandwagon” with no sense of direction and the only reason we are on it is because we really do think we are doing something “sustainable.” However, the reality is when we take our recycle bin to the curb, we could actually be doing more harm. When something is recycled, it is known as downcycling which in some cases reduces the quality of the material. The process of downcycling can actually increase the contamination of the biosphere (McDonough, Braungart). These solutions are not meant to further harm us, they are simply failed attempts to improve our wasteful situation.
Architects are tied to the environment and have an impact on either enhancing or contributing to destroying our world. We have the choice to not ignore a growing problem, but embrace the opportunity in solving the problem. It is simply unacceptable to disregard our obligations to the future generations; it is time to take a stand moving towards an architecture which thrives with our natural environment. When taking this stand, designers should not only think about the immediate goals for the design, but think about how a building can act as if it were made by nature itself. When our client deserts the building or a natural disaster occurs, will the buildings waste replenish the soil? We as designers have the ability to change the way in which our buildings are designed. We have the say in the materials we select, where they come from, how they are made and must acquire the knowledge to make the right decisions. It is our responsibility to our community to ask questions whether something is toxic or what the effects are on the local and global communities may be if you choose a particular product.
The problems we are facing are not simple. There is much to learn and it will require everyone’s participation to ensure a positive turn with how we deal with waste. This is a time to work together for innovative design solutions. Our designs should protect lives using the facilities today, tomorrow and the next day. It is not enough to take out the recycle bin laying it by the curb; we must design in such a way our future generations hold us in high regard for we were the generation that changed the direction in favor to prosper of our world.
Could there be Sustainable Golf Balls in Design?
Written by bethany on June 30th, 2009
We all see the poor golfer looking through the mass pile of golf balls in a barrel at a golf club. They are looking for the brand name of Callaway, Nike and the #1 golf ball Titleist. Will they find a deal? Maybe and probably not. I am an amateur and I mean AMATEUR golfer. I love to play and if I saw my ball at the edge of muggy dark and slimy pond, I would muddy up the shoes and pull it from the muck. Then I would wash it off , give it a little, “you can do better than that” talk and place it in my pocket.
Photos from washed-out Augusta
In Architecture, you hear the word “green”, “LEED”, and “sustainable”. There are products made of recycled material, grown sustainable and these products are better on the environment and can lead to LEED certified buildings. Amazing! Anything to help this wonderful environment should be done. The Innovations section of the magazine Eco-Structure is an fabulous resource for these materials. They have things like textiles made of bamboo, colored glass that saves energy and urinals made of soybean resin!
But, my question goes back to the golf ball. I haven’t played a course where the ball did not find water. I’m thinking there are plenty of customers looking at the used golf balls for sale at the course. There are mixed opinions about the golf balls performing well after being emerged in water….3 months they are still performing well?…well then, how long have the actually been there?
The “LEED” movement in architecture and design has pushed building materials to have recycled content, be recyclable and safe for the environment. I think golf balls could play a part in this movement. Could there be recycled golf balls for architecture? Sure, maybe countertops, walls of Plexiglas with balls filled between studs at golf shops. The very first golf ball in the 17th century was made of wood! Today, they are made of a variety synthetic materials. Could they be melted into a flooring product like tires into gym flooring? I’m not sure. But, as many balls that are played surely we can recycle them and turn them into something spectacular…..but, this is just a thought from a designer who loves design and loves to hit balls into the water.