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Some designers would like to think that making things from recycled materials or designing them for marginally longer life will save the world, but in truth much of it will end up in landfill regardless. Take a drinks bottle - Do you buy a bottle made with recycled content, or use a refillable bottle? A lot of ‘green’ campaigns focus on recycled content or recyclability, but if the user does not recycle the product, or buys it when they don’t need to, then there is no positive effect. Remember that ‘recycle’ comes only after ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’. Remember too, that for many products the energy consumption during manufacture pales in comparison to the amount of energy used during the lifetime of the product. By investing in R&D, energy usage of a product can be reduced, and by designing for positive usage patterns, energy usage can be reduced further. Design for disassembly at end-of-life is important in reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. Legislation, such as the WEEE directive (Europe), forces manufacturers to design for recyclability. By designing with disassembly in mind, the process of collection and recycling at end-of-life can be done economically. One idea put forward in the book ‘Cradle to Cradle’ is that used components and materials can act as ‘nutrients’ for the next generation of products. This way, no new materials are required, and no materials end up in landfill.
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