Sustainability

Recycling 101: What Everyone Should Know About Recycling

There is a lot of confusion when it comes to recycling. It’s enough to just peep into your nearby recycling bins to see it’s all over the place, even though there are some generic guides on which things to put in each bin.

Nobody really teaches you how to do it (at least in the contexts where I’ve lived, as well as talked about it with friends and acquaintances) and still, we all pretend to know because at this point of industrial development and climate emergency we should already know, right?

Or everyone expects us to know, so we dispose of almost everything we classify as waste in the recycling bin we think makes more sense and just wish for the best. It makes us feel good to think all of that garbage is going to a better place. Waste managers often call this wishful or aspirational recycling.

Unfortunately, putting incorrect objects in with the rest of the recycling can do more harm than good (no matter how good the intentions). Too many of these items can contaminate an entire truck of recycling and it can all end up in a landfill.

According to Waste Management, an American trash collecting company, the average recycling contamination rate — or disposal of trash or recyclables in the wrong recycling bin — is 25%, meaning 1 in 4 items thrown in a recycling bin isn’t recyclable.

Even recyclable materials, such as plastic and other paper products, can act as contaminants.

Considering the lack of education and clarity about how and what to recycle, I put together this basic, sort of Recycling 101 article to offer some practical guidance, as well as a brief consideration of current challenges and a perspective of how recycling fits in a more sustainable model of consumption (which is complex enough to be a separate or even a series of articles in the future).

Workers separating paper and other contaminants at Alpine Waste & Recycling. The Denver Post (2018)

Workers separating paper and other contaminants at Alpine Waste & Recycling. The Denver Post (2018)

Key things to have in mind when sorting out your waste:

 

1. Check what is recycled in your system

Every city has a different waste management system, so what may be classified as recyclable by the facilities in Barcelona might not be accepted in New York.

Plastic bags and items made from plastic film (i.e. shrink wrap, bubble wrap, Ziploc bags, trash bags, etc.) are not accepted by many waste facilities. Their machines are not designed for these types of materials so they can clog the machine. Most recycling facilities are set up to handle predominately rigid (hard) materials that are easier to separate using machinery.

You should manually separate elements according to what is accepted in your curbside recycling bins.

For instance, a plastic bottle can be made from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE), or plastic #1, commonly used for carbonated beverages, water bottles, and food packaging, while the lid is generally made from a different material, like polypropylene (PP), plastic #5, which may not be recyclable in your area. The adhesive label of the bottle is probably not recyclable either.

In Catalonia, you can keep the lids on the plastic bottles but you should take off the labels, while the glass containers should be divided: the glass jars should go in the green (glass) bin and the metal lids should go in the yellow (light packaging) one according to Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Since global efforts for recycling have increased in the past years, you may find detailed information about what to dispose of where according to where you live, like this waste sorting guide developed in Catalonia (which strangely I don’t see promoted to citizens publicly, so you may find something similar in your city if you do a bit of research). I was doing several things wrong before I saw it.

 

2. The numbered triangle “recycling” symbol on packaging does not mean that it is recyclable

Shocking, I know. One of the biggest points of confusion in recycling might be that triangle with the number in it. That symbol can be found on most plastics, and you would think that means that it’s recyclable.

But it doesn’t. In the plastics industry, that little triangle is known simply as the “resin stamp,” a marking plastics manufacturers use to indicate the type of plastic it is.

Unfortunately, even though it is printed in a chasing-arrows symbol, this stamp does not mean that the plastic item is recyclable in any given program. It only tells you what it is made out of. 

Also consider that even if the packaging states its recyclability in some explicit way, it may have been manufactured in another country (with a different recycling system) so you have to learn about your local waste management program to see what they actually classify as recyclable.

Read more: some recycling symbols explained.

Recycling Decoded, ProfessionalBeauty.co

Recycling Decoded, ProfessionalBeauty.co

 

3. Know that some things are not really recyclable (at least at the moment)

  • Disposable coffee cups: most single-use cups are lined with a fine film of polyethylene, which makes the cups liquid-proof but also difficult and expensive to reprocess (because the materials have to be separated). Most waste management facilities will treat the cups as trash.

“Millions and millions of people every day try to do the right thing by putting their cups in a bin to be recycled. […] These cups are made of high-quality fiber and they could be recycled” — if they didn’t have the plastic lining.” Jim Ace, Stand.earth (2018)

  • Pizza boxes: the problem is that oil often seeps into the cardboard. The oil cannot be separated from the fiber, making that material less valuable, and less marketable, to buyers. If there’s a side that’s not oily, tear that off and dispose of it in the paper/cardboard bin.

  • Food-contaminated plastic containers: even though the food doesn’t permeate as it happens with cardboard, if you leave scraps of noodles in a plastic tray it’s recycling contamination. Washing out food scraps from recyclables can be just as important as putting the right thing in the recycling bin.

    You don’t have to scrub containers until they are sparkling — that could waste water — but rinse and leave them empty, clean, and dry. What can’t be rescued goes to the general trashcan. If your home recycling bin is smelly it’s an indicator of contamination.

  • Hazardous waste: containers for paint, automotive fluids, or strong chemicals must be disposed of separately or, for some facilities, cleaned out before they can be recycled. Check with your local recycling waste program manager to learn about the methods necessary to make sure these items can be recycled.

  • Diapers: okay these may be obvious to a lot of people, but it’s still getting into plastic recycling bins so I’ll leave this here.

  • Plastic pens, used pencils, plastic toothbrushes, disposable razors: in general, most products that mix many materials (even if they contain some recyclable materials such as different kinds of plastic) that are bound chemically cannot be recycled. Please do not put them in any kind of recycling bin.

In the United States, over a billion toothbrushes — equal to 50 million pounds of waste — are discarded into landfills every year.

In the United States, over a billion toothbrushes — equal to 50 million pounds of waste — are discarded into landfills every year.

 

4. Should you crush the materials?

Ever feel the need to crush things before you recycle them? Well, it’s often the right instinct, as it conserves space and is more efficient for pick-up by recyclers.

Aluminum cans, however, can be an exception. According to Matt Meenan, the senior director of public affairs at the Aluminum Association, when crushed cans enter the recycling stream, they can become more difficult to sort out and can contaminate other recyclable materials.

A flattened soda can be sorted as “paper,” for instance, thus contaminating the paper recyclables. “Crushed aluminum cans may fall through the spaces of the sorting equipment and either be lost entirely or improperly sorted,” he added.

Whether you crush materials or not depends on your recycling infrastructure. If you’re in a city with multi-stream recycling, you’re probably fine to recycle them in any way you want. If you’re participating in a single-stream recycling program (the kind where you throw all your recyclables in a single bin at the curb) it could be best to leave them uncrushed.

 

5. What about the rest?

Just because some products don’t go into common domestic recycling bins doesn’t mean they can’t be recycled. Check if there are other pickup points in your location.

For example, mirrors are not just glass and the reflective chemical components they contain are not fit for the traditional glass recycling stream.

The same happens with Pyrex and ceramics. These are types of glass that have been treated with chemicals to withstand high temperatures so they don’t melt at the same temperatures used for traditional glass recycling.

As a guideline, the domestic recycling points for glass and plastic are mostly for plastic and glass containers. If you have a glass window that is broken (if it’s not, it’s better if it can be reused), that is recyclable but goes elsewhere.

Metals such as aluminum and steel can also be recycled but usually have different collection points around the city. For more convenience, I collect them in separate containers and dispose of them when there is a reasonable amount (such as with the steel blades of the safety razor, which should go in a metal container for disposal with other metals, or in a sharps container).

Glass recycling process - Suez recycling and recovery

Glass recycling process - Suez recycling and recovery

 

Knowing what is and what isn’t recyclable can give you some ideas of elements to try to stay away from, which you can substitute with reusable alternatives according to your lifestyle.

For example, paper bags for pastries can have an interior plastic film like disposable coffee cups, be covered in wax or, if untreated, they will easily absorb grease, which in any case would discard them for recycling. Instead, you can use cloth bags to buy fresh bread (which I love to do in local bakeries).

It may seem like a lot of effort at first, but it only requires a little bit of planning. I rarely will buy bread randomly. I will probably know what I’ll be using it for and what I want to eat it with (because I’m always thinking about food but that is another issue).

In any case, these are very lightweight items that you can carry in any bag you take with you, together with containers for things you buy more spontaneously or frequently (like takeaway coffee).

Cloth bag to transport fresh bread.

Cloth bag to transport fresh bread.

 

The crucial thing to understand about recycling is that it is not the solution to the waste problem.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), even though 75 percent of our waste is recyclable, only 30 percent actually makes it into the recycling stream, and recycling requires a tremendous amount of energy. What really makes a difference is to reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place.

Reducing and reusing has a much better environmental performance than disposing and recycling
, and those should always be the firsts options.

Therefore, recycling is not a magic cure-all but a last resort. And if we add the fact that there is a recycling crisis around the globe, we can see why we should focus most of our efforts on generating less waste altogether.

Seeing the general picture of how our recyclables may go to a landfill anyway can, to say the least, generate mixed feelings about recycling.

Recycling is good when it really works, which is what we should contribute to and demand as citizens (keep an eye on local reports, make pressure on government institutions and waste recycling facilities, and hold manufacturers responsible for their products).

Even though the current recycling system lacks efficiency (and in most cases transparency), which by itself can disappoint people enough to not want to separate their waste, it’s still advisable to do it.

Recycling has been an improvement compared to the management of waste in previous decades where almost 100% of the waste was filling and contaminating our lands.

Nowadays, when people speak of “zero-waste” they mean zero trash that is not recyclable, but they still dispose of other elements like food scraps, metal, glass, etc. There is always some percentage of remains that should be transformed, and recycling is still an important part of extending the life of resources and closing the loop.

 
The waste hierarchy of most preferred to least preferred waste management actions. Zero Waste Network (2020)

The waste hierarchy of most preferred to least preferred waste management actions. Zero Waste Network (2020)

 

The recycling crisis is (as most issues) a systemic problem, caused by a scarce education about how local recycling works and the lack of information of the global management of the waste we generate (maybe it’s been sent to other countries where they may or may not be recycled), which altogether leads to high percentages of contamination and a narrow perspective where we continue shifting the problem (it doesn’t hurt if you don’t see it anymore, right?).

When we do recycle, we might as well be informed to do our part correctly while demanding better systems along the way.


Caring for our planet: practical advice towards a greener life

Sustainability is a buzzword right now, in any creative field you may work in. Everyone wants to claim they are doing something good for the environment, and we have more information than ever before about how much we have messed up our planet.

Who is responsible for this?

A satellite image of Batemans Bay, Australia, on New Year's Eve, 2019.

A satellite image of Batemans Bay, Australia, on New Year's Eve, 2019.

The hard truth is that we all share responsibility.

Yes, several companies have been doing terrible things for decades and have a huge part behind all of it, with political and commercial agendas that I can’t even begin to unravel. But the way we live our lives, the people we vote for, the companies we give our money to, and what we demand as citizens and customers, also shape our world massively.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this the last couple of years, when I also took a Master’s degree in Material Design (which led me to research a lot about sustainability since it was the main area I wanted to focus on). I realized that it made no sense to advocate for sustainability through my work while ignoring the environmental impact of my daily habits. One thing does not offset the other.

One idea that basically guides my life is trying to be as consistent and coherent as I can in relation to my principles and the way I act in the different spheres of being.

In the end, it all adds up, and if we have the opportunity to live in this beautiful planet we should at least have a respectful way of doing it.

So, after all this rant I would like to share some of the things I’ve been doing from the beginning (I’m still in process of making many changes) to transform my lifestyle towards a more sustainable way of living, in case it serves to guide or inspire you:

  • Take a test to assess your environmental impact:

    WWF-UK developed a carbon footprint calculator as a way of showing your carbon emissions, compared to other people and other countries. It’s your impression on the planet. You can access it here: https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/

    While it does not deliver a very detailed report, it gives you an initial idea of the categories that have a bigger impact in your footprint, together with some tips to reduce it.

My results from the WWF Footprint Calculator.

My results from the WWF Footprint Calculator.

 
  • Ditch disposables:

    It’s not that plastic is a bad material (it’s wonderful for certain purposes!). It’s that it’s absurd to use a material that lasts hundreds of years (and will literally outlive you) for something you need to use just one day or even a few minutes.

    This may lead to absurd and sad consequences, like there being more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050 (by weight).

    We need to redesign the systems of production and consumption to embrace a circular, post- disposable world, were we design out waste from the beginning. 

    A list of basic things to reduce disposables:

  • Reusable water bottle (I take this everywhere).

  • Reusable cloth and mesh bags to buy vegetables. fruit and nuts in bulk.

  • Cheesecloth bag to make almond, hazelnut (this one is amazing with cocoa) or oatmeal milk.

  • Textile napkins.

  • Reusable silicone bags and lids to store food in the fridge or freezer.

  • Stainless steel safety razor.

  • Menstrual cup.

  • Reusable cup for coffee and tea. 

  • Stainless steel straw.

  • Compostable toothbrush (check that the bristles are also made from a compostable material because some bamboo toothbrushes still have them made from plastic).

  • Compostable sponges for washing the dishes and cleaning (there are a variety of materials from coconut fibers to luffa).

  • Home water filter to stop buying bottled water.


If you do the math of how much you will spend in a lifetime in disposables, the investment of buying something that lasts decades will be not only more ecofriendly but cheaper. Pay special attention to things that you replace and buy frequently.

My home water filter by Ecofiltro💦

My home water filter by Ecofiltro💦

 
  • Buy in bulk from local stores:

At bulk stores and some regular grocery stores, you can pay for your goods by weight, so you buy just what you need while reducing packaging waste, which cuts down what we accumulate and throw away in the kitchen. 

You can buy lots of things in bulk, from food (rice, beans, dried fruits, spices, etc.) to cleaning supplies (dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, etc.) without all the toxic chemicals industrial ones generally contain (both the planet and my lungs appreciate this change). 

Please remember to bring your own containers to buy what you need. I see a lot of people that stop by to shop and put everything in disposable paper bags which can be just as bad as plastic bags (plus sometimes they add their own label in the store but if you really don’t need it it’s better to refuse it).  

Bulk store in the center of Barcelona (Casa Perris).

Bulk store in the center of Barcelona (Casa Perris).

 
  • Review what you eat:


The world’s food system is responsible for about one-quarter of the planet-warming greenhouse gases that humans generate each year. 

While I’m not vegetarian I have reduced the amount of meat in my meals (especially red meat), and I really enjoy discovering new recipes to diversify what I eat, by consuming more protein-rich plants like beans, legumes, nuts, and grains.

In general, what you eat matters a lot more than where it comes from since transportation accounts for only about 6 percent of food’s total climate footprint. That being said (of course it’s always better to support local commerce when you can), there are a few things to consider.

The average greenhouse gas impact (in kilograms of CO2) of getting 50 grams of protein from different sources. Poore and Nemecek, Science (2018)

The average greenhouse gas impact (in kilograms of CO2) of getting 50 grams of protein from different sources. Poore and Nemecek, Science (2018)

Anything that’s in season where you live, whether you buy it at a local farmers’ market or a supermarket, is usually a good choice.

Apps like TooGoodtoGo and Phenix (available in Spain) are also a great option, where you can buy leftover (but still in perfect condition) groceries and food at a cheaper price.

Because food waste is a gigantic issue: as much as one-third of the total food production.

In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. This estimate, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010.
— U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That means that all the resources it took to produce this amount of food were wasted. Therefore, one key way to cut your food-related emissions is to waste less. Buying what you need and actually eating it — instead of tossing it out — means that the energy used to produce your food has been spent efficiently.

Plan your meals smartly so that everything gets used. One hack I like is freezing the leftover peels and scraps of vegetables to make stock for rice and soup. They are still full of flavor and nutrients. 

Be vigilant so you eat, or otherwise freeze, the food in your refrigerator (I freeze many things from rice to arepas), instead of letting it spoil. Order your fridge so you can easily see everything (especially the food that doesn’t last too long or has been there for a while). Store fresh food properly so it can last longer or share it with someone who may enjoy it.

Another thing I like to do is using the leftover pulp from preparing almond / hazelnut milk to make yummy snack balls. Basically, try to get the most out of everything @aknamarquez

Another thing I like to do is using the leftover pulp from preparing almond / hazelnut milk to make yummy snack balls. Basically, try to get the most out of everything @aknamarquez

 
  • Buy smarter:

Buying secondhand is a great option to find affordable clothes and home items. I’ve got some beautiful clothing pieces for prices as cheap as 1 euro in a perfect condition, to wear for many years to come. When I’m looking for something specific (color, size, or design), I will probably buy something new but I now I try to focus more on the quality and the durability, even if it may be more expensive.

Encants Vintage Market (2019)

Encants Vintage Market (2019)

 
  • Share your ride:

    Public transport, cycling and walking around the city are the best ways to move around. Walking is also a great opportunity to discover new places around that you may love and is not only good for your body but also your brain. I also like to use the spare time while commuting on the metro to make time to read every day.

sCvRIEd.gif
 
  • Use resources more efficiently:

There’s a lot you can improve by changing appliances in your house.

Some changes that we’ve added recently at home are shower head filters that create more pressure so you may use about 30% less water while removing chlorine, which also helps to have healthier skin and hair.

Another easy shift is washing your clothes less. It may sound gross and of course, it all depends on the intensity of the activities you have done wearing them but companies like Levi’s have launched initiatives to educate consumers where they advise exactly that: spot clean instead of tossing them in the washing machine if unnecessary, or soak and line dry.

Your clothes will last longer and you will use less water.

 
  • Share what you are learning:

    Talk with your friends and family about the subject. What do they think about our environmental situation? Share tips and thoughts instead of shaming people around you for not thinking the same. Gift items that make a more sustainable lifestyle easier (perhaps they won’t buy these things themselves but if they have them around they would use them for daily things like buying groceries or having coffee).

    I’m no zero-waste guru either, I’m just learning. Please share any thoughts or experiences you may have! :)

 
  • Take advantage of what you already have:

We can’t shop our way into sustainability. Because of sustainability marketing, there is this notion that products can be 100% sustainable if just the right materials are chosen. Yet, any item, even the most “sustainable” one, say made of recycled fibers, still has an environmental footprint and it is fundamental to keep that in mind. Walking and cycling, for example, is always going to be more sustainable than any electric car they try to sell you.

We don’t need all the hippest stuff we see influencers using (even zero-waste influencers).  We can reuse a lot of things that are already made. If you have plastic containers don’t throw them away to buy new stainless steel or glass ones. Reuse everything you can or give it away responsibly.

I’m a big fan of reusing glass jars in all sizes and shapes!

I’m a big fan of reusing glass jars in all sizes and shapes!

 

One of my teachers used to say in class that sustainability doesn’t exist because the most sustainable thing would be to not exist at all. It’s a reasonable statement. But since we do, let’s make our best to take care of this place we call home. We have more information than ever before and finally, the pressure towards brands is growing

Instead of feeling doomed with the news, which paralyzes and makes us feel powerless, we must see that our actions matter, and constantly push for a systemic change.

Our daily habits shape not only the way we live and work, but they also influence others around us and create consumer demands that companies respond to. We have a voice (that we should be using more) in demanding an ethical behavior from governments and brands.

All of it matters.


Design for the Long Time

The (pandemic imposed) slow pace of this year has carved a space to reflect on how we make sense of time. Our frenetic lifestyle is regularly filled with numerous daily tasks and decisions that keep us busy, making it easy to get caught into narrow, short-term thinking.

But…

what do our lives contribute to in the long run? 

In the past month, I participated in a virtual workshop hosted by Bea Karol Burks and Ella Saltmarshe, during the Re_Festival event (organized by CIVIC SQUARE), with the focus of “Creating the Long Time”. The session inspired rumination in me (and perhaps in many of the participants) and led me to write this post based on my notes.

Picture I took during the virtual event “Creating the Long Time”.

Picture I took during the virtual event “Creating the Long Time”.

 

One of the key takeaways I got from the event was learning to see a wider time span for understanding and designing our impact as communities, based on two concepts:

  • Long-termism: planning and forecasting for the future.

  • Long-timism: cultivating care for the world beyond our lifetimes.

While as designers we probably already gravitate towards imagining what the future may look like, using forecasting as a tool to conceptualize and predict trends, we rarely make creative decisions that extend beyond a few years, much less a lifetime period.

 
In politics, the dominant time frame is a term of office, in fashion and culture, it’s a season. For corporations it’s a quarter, on the internet it’s minutes, and on the financial markets mere milliseconds
— Esther Dyson
 

Our wealth and rights, as individuals, depend on the efforts and achievements of the many generations who came before us. However, we tend to underestimate our relationships and lineages with past generations and future populations.

This may be caused by a “systemic and psychological inability”[1] to see beyond immediate consequences and results, as well as the difficulty to understand our lasting footprint beyond our deaths (which may be caused by a refusal of death itself).

We may suffer from a limited “human-centric” view of the world (which is why many creatives are already pushing towards a planet-centric view of design over the popular human-centered design model). Homo sapiens represent just a fraction of history, and of the creatures that have been (and will be) alive on this planet. 

 

Promotional video for the book "The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World" by the philosopher Roman Krznaric (2020).

 

From Krznaric’s video for the book (which I haven’t read yet but it’s on my wish list), I loved the idea of passing on gifts for future generations.

It’s hard to grasp the immensity of time but we could use different references to project scenarios that help us to expand our thinking (such as a dear person’s grandchild, which starts from someone you already know and care about). 

We could also learn from indigenous cultures with worldviews that connect their communities to long lineages, creating a sense of responsibility to care for the future of their descendants, and thanking their ascendants for what they have given them.

Even trying to shift beyond short time spans and immediate gratifications in benefit of medium to longer-term impacts in our own lifetime could be a start (in general, I try to apply ideas in a gradual manner and it works for me; if I can’t think about time a couple of months or years in the future, I’ll hardly adopt the custom of seeing decades or centuries from now). 

In my personal life, I like to think about how to make thoughtful decisions and actions in the present that will make the life of my future self better. It can be small things like cooking ahead yummy food that “future Akna” will enjoy next week or getting a letter from “past Akna”, all the way to finding the motivation to invest, exercise and stay healthy in the present, which I hope will allow me to enjoy life and be active and present for my loved ones in future decades. 

 
 
From The Good Ancestor (2020). Graphic by Nigel Hawtin.

From The Good Ancestor (2020). Graphic by Nigel Hawtin.

 
 

In a longer span, initiatives such as the Rights for Future Generations, are attempting to advance environmental protections for future populations in relation to the climate crisis. Others are trying to imagine how can we construct post-mortem interactions with these future generations, like the concept of Willed Futures, a platform that automates acts of care that transcend death. 

Users are able to send a flower every year to a loved one after the moment of passing, extending the presence of self-hood well beyond bodily material decay, by digitally coding and planning gestures of generosity that are executed in the afterlife.

Users are able to send a flower every year to a loved one after the moment of passing, extending the presence of self-hood well beyond bodily material decay, by digitally coding and planning gestures of generosity that are executed in the afterlife.

 

Valuing the long-term is about understanding our place in the wider web of life: [2]

  1. Caring about the richness of life on Earth and its evolution during the geological history of the universe (Deep time)

  2. Developing a connection to future and past generations (Multigenerational emotions)

  3. Respecting the value of nature and non-human species of Earth (Interconnected worldviews).

  4. Dealing with the fact that our lives will end and facing this reality by living more intentionally (Mortality consciousness).

  5. Building the desire and agency to leave a positive legacy (Legacy stance).


These are key mentalities (presented in the workshop) through which we can live our lives and reframe our relationship with time. We need to develop the will, motivation and instruments to escape the prominence of the present, and realize our power and responsibility for the future. 


What things could we do now, that would bring benefits in the long-time future? What strategies can you think of to extend our time horizons?

 

Footnotes:

  1. EIT Climate KIC. (2020) Persistent selves. Retrieved from: https://www.climate-kic.org/opinion/persistent-selves/

  2. Summary from my notes of the event “Creating the Long Time”. The namings in bold and brackets for each idea was presented by the workshop hosts: Bea Karol Burks and Ella Saltmarshe (2020).


Sustainability and Beauty

Sustainability and Beauty

Today's topic is built once again around sustainability. In this case, it involves the idea of beauty in sustainability.
 

  • Are sustainability and beauty concepts separated by nature?
  • How can we merge aesthetics into ecological approaches?


Specially this second questions is one I want to deepen in through my path in design. Some people even consider green design and great design to inherently follow completely different quests, being almost incompatible. Does it have to be this way?

Rethinking Sustainability

Rethinking Sustainability

One subject that has been a focus of interest in my recent studies is sustainability. It is “on trend”, everybody speaks about it, but we should really stop and think about what the concept means to us.

We must start thinking about sustainable develpment in a deeper and broader way.

Many believe this deals only with energy efficiency, carbon emissions and ecomaterials, but in most cases it goes beyond that.

Generally the bigger problem is with use.