People nowadays know that recycling is carrioud out here in Australia, even in residential areas, recreational areas and some shopping malls, we are aware that different coloured bins are provided for recycling purposes. But we never understand how the process of recycle itself which brings back top be a new product. No one ever explained especially for those immigrants moving in to Australia and the products out there don't convince us that they're recycled. Certainly, if they're recycled, the company would be proud of it and they would inform about it on the packaging. I've only seen '5¢ refund for collection in SA'. This certainly encourages the people in SA to recycle. But what about other parts of the world? Why only SA?
One thing I remembered when watching the video - people say plastics cannot be recycled, and they take hundreds of years to decompose. That's why now, they (example, UNSW bookshop) use paper bags "to save the environment" and supermarkets (like Coles and Woolworths) encourage buyers to use cloth bags instead of plastic bags. But since plastics can be recycled, what's so wrong about using plastic bags? And there's still a lot of plastic bottles and products out there...
We all aware that this world is running out recources and one way to help prevent it is to recycle products. In the video, it says that plastics cannot be recycled as they take hundreds of years to decompose.
In Germany, recycled paper accounts for 60% in making new paper, recycled steel provides around 40% of the raw material, and probably more than 80% of glass is re-cycled. I say it is extremely possible to increase these numbers to 100%, so new materials are not needed anymore. All other countries should also learn and invest in recycling factories because it's extremely useful and we do need it.
According to How It's made video, it says that tetra pak is a good example of recyclable materials for packging and very eco friendly. Tetra pack is made up pf layers of foils, paper and plastics which are all recyclable. In fact, Tetra pack is recyclable in many facilities however many smaller communities still do not have the equipment to process of recycling Tetra pack in an efficient way.
Talking about recycling, sometimes people are also confused about the bins. The bins are usually divided into paper bins and container bins. However, many products are made with more than one material and when people throw it away, they don't want to deal with it anymore. Other times, it's just impossible to tear it apart. A few days ago, I threw a book with steel binds into the paper bin, I also threw cardboard boxes with sticky tapes. This shows that the recycling system is not well thought/planned/designed yet. I know that in the recycling factories, it will be accurately, at lightning speed, sorted out.
But I believe there will be a better way of doing this whole system of recycling, example, an underground tunnel system which automatically sort out every rubbish that we throw and connects it to the factory or incinerator. This way, rubbish is not a problem anymore. In apartments for example, there are recycling bins on every level. So probably they bring the bins down every few days, but there are 20+ levels. So inconvenient, so troublesome. Therefore I strongly believe that there are opportunities for designers, business people and others in this area.
Finally, i would strongly suggest the designers to watch these videos so that they can also contribute their design in an eco friendly ways and hope that this effort can help conserve our beloved mother earth.
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