WEEK 11: Zero Waste and Sustainability

LECTURE
Robert Crocker - Zero waste and sustainability

How does this relate to design practice?

Design practice, and designers themselves have the responsibility to long-term use, reuse, disuse and waste in mind. Consideration of the lifecycle of materials, as well as the embodied energy ("emergy") used to process them and manufacture products is as important as the planning and economics of any product.

Increasingly, sustainability moves from an ideal to an obligation, to a marketing asset. But, the marketing asset is often shortcut without the ideals or obligations, via "greenwashing."

How can designers drive change?

Small-scale domestic practices are perhaps the most simple way to begin in changing behaviour, combining and re-using materials. Most research studies suggest that behaviour change takes 3-6 weeks to solidify, and moving towards sustainable practice in the home can create powerful habits which can carry through into design practice. 

I believe this to be more practical, meaningful and and sustainable in the long-term, than attempting to change business/design practices and systems without considering the small everyday elements.

READING
Crocker (2011) 
Somebody Else’s Problem: consumer culture, waste and behaviour change: the case of walking

Robert Crocker's paper shines a light on some very sobering facts, from both the perspectives of shocking environmental catastrophe, and the everyday practical impacts of our behaviour.

From the jaw-dropping sights of the Pacific Garbage Patch, to the daily phenomenon of walking versus driving, this is a wake-up call for everyone. Never having joined a gym, I can only observe how millions of people make a daily drive in their comfortable cars, to a place where they spend time walking on a treadmill. This is a perfect example of the type of behaviour that a child could look at and say "Mummy, why don't you just walk outside?"

Crocker discusses the ways in which cars are marketed to generate the idea that driving is better than walking, that the technology is a marvel of human achievement, and that all other methods of transport - particularly those which require no fuel - such as walking and cycling, are inferior. This, in turn, means that the infrastructure which supports them (cycle paths, pedestrian bridges etc) often "wither and die" or are never developed in the first place, unless they "are vigorously defended."

"Driving, however much we can improve it technically, is invariably a resource and energy-intensive activity"

"‘Sustainable transport’ has to be re-imagined as much more than simply ‘smarter’ or greener cars."

Crocker continues to get at the heart of the problem however, the continual desire to consume. The multiple motivational pathways that humans have developed to continue in consumption. As well as material posessions, the desier to understand, gather information, travel and experience the world, become mobile and independent, and to seek continual (albeit gradual) improvements and streamlining to everyday life through gadgets and appliances.

We are addicted to continuous improvement through consumption. Our appliances are discarded while still functional, in favour of new ones which offer a perceived improvement to our lifestyle. This is perhaps most clearly evidenced by not only the volume of "hard rubbish" that is placed outside Australian homes each year, but also the "unoffical" collectors of it. While local councils spend much time and manpower on regulating and recycling, we all know that in all probability, some of the items we discard will be taken by a passing opportunist - and we welcome this as it removes the item from our responsibilty, thus confirming that it is "somebody elses problem". Strangely however, many councils have made this practice, often known as "gleaning" illegal (Lewis et al., 2014).


REFERENCES
 

• Lane, R. "The waste commons in an emerging resource recovery waste regime: contesting property and value in Melbourne's hard rubbish collections." Geographical Research 49, no. 4 (2011): 395-407.
• Lane, R., Horne, R. & Bicknell, J. "Routes of reuse of second-hand goods in Melbourne households." Australian Geographer 40, no. 2 (2009): 151-168.
• Lewis, T., Wilken, R, Allan, M and Arcari, O. "Cultural economies of hard rubbish." (2014).
• Crocker, R. (2011). “‘Somebody Else’s Problem’: consumer culture, waste and behaviour change: the case of walking”, in S. Lehmann and R. Crocker (eds), Designing for Zero Waste: consumption, technologies and the built environment. Earthscan: London.
• Strasser, S. (2000). Waste and Want: a social history of trash. New York: Henry Holt.
  www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/resource-centre