Changing Television...

With Australian television about to change to digital, the rate of televisions being thrown away has dramatically risen. Why is television changing? According to the Australian Government website it is to keep up to date with technology, to free up broadcast space and to improve your viewing experience. I don’t know about anyone else by my television works just fine at the moment.

When switching to digital you have three options; one, you buy a set top box, two, you buy a digital recorder or three, you buy a new television with a digital tuner built in. If you fail to do any of these things you wont be able to watch television once they switch over. The government suggests that “…it’s important that you plan ahead and, if necessary, budget for the change to digital.” I’m sure people have more important things to spend their money on when they already have a perfectly fine television.

Most people are using this as an opportunity to buy a new flat-screen television, last year alone more than 2.5 million people brought new televisions. What are they doing with their old ones? In 2007–08, 16.8 million televisions and computers were thrown out and 84% of these where sent to landfill. This statistic was taken before the decision to switch off analog television was made. The government had predicted that without a recycling system put in place the number of televisions being dumped could rise to 44 million at the end of 2028. The government are doing very little maybe they should have taken their own advice and planned ahead to implement new ways of disposing of old televisions.

Many older televisions have hazardous waste in the screens and other toxic materials like lead and mercury. A new recycling plant in Adelaide has recently opened and is the first of its kind, the plant will process more the 300,000 television and computer screens. The recycled glass will be used all over the world and largely for new screens. There should be more plants like this.

For information on where to recycle your television properly see:

http://www.crtrecycling.com.au/where_recycle.html

More information;

http://www.digitalready.gov.au/index.aspx

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/screens-to-be-recycled/story-e6frea83-1225713395129

http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/garrett/2009/mr20091105a.html

http://www.productstewardship.asn.au/documents/PSA_Release_051104.pdf

Creative designs - A unique solution

'Our products are rubbish - building accessories by hand from recycled materials' is the motto for this great company known as Haul. They are a company who wants to make a difference through design, furniture, art and most of all innovation. The company has a great way of thinking about items which are usually thrown away.

Haul designs are created from both found and recycled materials and they turn these items into creations including installation art pieces, furniture pieces and also into lifestyle accessories including cd cases, cushion covers, shopping bags and dog collars to name a few.

My favourite pieces are seen in the images below and can be bought directly off their website.

I personally love the designs they create, I think they are so unique and original. To check out the other items on offer go to their website.
Their website is: http://www.haul.com.au/store

The real cost of an Ipod.

Apple products have short life spans, what is newest does not remain so for long, they become fashionably obsolete. fast. Smaller Apple products such as Ipods also damage easily and the company gives the customer no incentive to retain and repair older products, repair of an old item is often equivalent to the cost of purchasing a new one. (green peace)

What is Apple doing to take responsibility for it’s environmental impact?
At first glance Apple’s environmental statement seems to lay it all out there. They breakdown and proudly display the different contributions to their environmental impact.

…Oh, except they neglect to include the impact of old products going into land fill. Yes they have a recycling program, but it is nowhere near 100% of old products that are recycled correctly.

Recycling figures for years past:
These figures are based on the weight of products recycled that year as a percentage of the weight of products sold seven years previous. This is based on a model by Dell where the average life of electronics is estimated at 7 years.

Before 2008 Apple products commonly contained some nasty chemicals; including Mercury, Arsenic, Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Although the company has now fased the use of these out older products containing these chemicals still exist and cause serious problems when the products are incorrectly disposed of, as Kathy Kiwala of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Electronics Recycling Program tells The Portland Tribune, “BFRs and PVC are turning up in everything from bird eggs to human tissue… We can’t expect to throw something out there and have it not impact everything around it,” (full article found here).

We will be paying a great price in the long term for what are purely luxury items. The ipod serves no required function and exists only for pleasure.

While the fazing out the harmful chemicals and introduction of their take back recycling program are positive steps and should not be belittled they are just starting steps on a path to an environmentally friendly company. The core of the Apple problem remains their casual attitude to short life spans in their goods and encouraging mass consumerism.

further reading:

iposion+iwaste by greenpeace
Don’t toss that old iPod in the trash
Tasty news from Apple! at greenpeace.com
Apple and the environment at apple.com
Why BFRs and PVC should be phased out of electronic devices by greenpeace

Furniture Design - What a way of thinking!

In today's society furniture designers are focusing more towards the concept of sustainable design, which centres not only around a responsible use of materials and methods of manufacture but also on issues of object life span, energy usage, and recycling and disposal of the furniture piece for the long term.

Furniture makers are searching for new ways to modify the public's aesthetic expectations especially when it comes to forms that are multifunctional, recyclable and even made of alternative materials. With this said materials such as recycled cardboard, plastic, timber and unusual materials such as old bicycles and even shopping trolleys are being used to create new pieces of furniture.

I am not completely sold on some of these creations, although they do get me thinking about alternative ideas for furniture pieces. Some examples of recycled furniture are shown in the images below.


The 'RD4 Chair' designed by Richard Liddle is made out of 100% recycled plastic and is made in such a way that each chair differs from the last. The chair comes in five different colours allowing more choice for the consumer. I personally think this chair is amazing and would be one of the few recycled chairs on the market I would purchase.

http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=284

The 'Cub Children's Chair' designed by Daniel Michalik is made from recycled pure granulated cork, with a non-toxic binding agent. Although this chair is an interesting idea and made out of a material which would otherwise be thrown away, I personally don't like it. It is however the first chair I have ever seen made out of cork.

http://www.lilsugar.com/Cork-Chair-Kids-1697486

The 'Vector Lounge Chair' designed by Andy Gregg is constructed out of aluminium bicycle rims, bicycle handle bars and can also be purchased with custom padded vinyl cushions in a range of colours for comfort. Bike Furniture Design who sells all of Andy Gregg's collection has a range of furniture including chairs, tables, barstools and accessories all made from bicycles. It has to be seen to be believed!

http://www.bikefurniture.com/pageschair/1vector.html

Computer recycleing

computer companies do not want us to keep using our computers for very long, simply because it makes them more money if we are regularly buying new ones.
As there are 68.9 computers to every 100 people in Australia and we replace them at a rate of 2.4 million every year it would only take us 6 years to replace every computer in Australia. Unsurprisingly computers are the most frequently updated electronic device.

So what is happing to all these old computers? I happen to have an old laptop, it still works well except that the connection to the screen is broken and in 2009 it cost me less to replace it than to get it fixed. So I looked into what options are available to me to correctly dispose of my old laptop.

Apple has a recycling service, when you purchase a new product in Australia they will recycle your old computer of any make fee of charge, or you can recycle with them anytime only paying for the fee of the shipping to America, around $32 Australia.

1800 E Waste claim the title of Australia’s leading collection and recycling service for electronic waste. And will collect and recycle electronic items in some areas or Australia, they don’t service the ACT however, but were kind enough give me a quote of $66 dollars to recycle my old laptop if I lived in an eligible area.

Mugga Lane Resource Management Center, the local option, will take the laptop off my hands for $22.50 and send it to Melbourne for recycling.

Charity Computers, a Belconnen based organistation, accept working and damaged old computers with working parts, they then repair and supply the computers to not-for-profit organizations. An important part of their corporate promises is that only 5% of donated material becomes waste. They only charge a fee on donation of monitors of $15 and printers of $5.

Charity computers is the most appealing option to me, although I would qualify for apple’s free service, I think my computer would be ideal for donation to Charity Computers and that is the option I will choose.

Although, as we have found it is not that hard to correctly dispose of your old computer not may people take the trouble. For the year 2006 there were 1,600,000 old computers thrown away, 7,100,000 old computers sat unused in storage and only 500,000 old computers were correctly recycled. (statistics are from 1800 E WASTE)

At the rate we replace computers that is a massive amount of wast. And when you consider that many of the now unused computers are not broken but only made obsolete by a newer model it becomes a discussing case of over consumption.

Although there are good options to be used for recycling computers the real solution requires manufacturing companies to step up and create a longer lasting product, and for consumers to demand better value for their money.

Architecture - An insight into a new way of thinking.

When it comes to designing houses in Australia, the aesthetic appeal of the structure plays an enormous part in selling the building, if it looks good it will sell. Other factors including the effects on the environment and sustainability often get over looked or in many cases thrown out the window. If fact however these should be the main ideas architects should be designing around to ensure the environment we all live in exists for future generations.

An architect by the name of Michael Reynolds is someone we should all be inspired by. His take on saving the environment and sustainability is incredible. His designs are based around a home that provides its own water, heats itself, grows its own food, recycles its own waste and has its own power source.

Although his designs are based in other parts of the world including Mexico, USA and India all of which have different climates to each other, some of these ideals surely could be experimented with in housing designs in Australia.

One of my favourite designs of his is the concept of the 'Earthship': built from used car tyres rammed with earth, it recycles rainwater and sewage and it is a solar powered home which has a minimal cost to keep it running all year round. The inital concept was not the most attractive building I've ever seen, however the latest model fits in with the surrounding environment extremely well. I do have to question though, if aesthetics are really that important when compared to the environment and sustainability.

Other ideas for building materials included the use of cans filled with water and also glass bottles.

His dream of changing the world might just be a distant dream at present but surely future generations all over the world will have to change there dependency on declining supplies of water, gas and oil and think about other means of supplying these.

For more information see:

http://www.garbagewarrior.com/

http://earthship.org/

Everything old is new again…

The seasonal waste of fashion created by the fast moving fashion cycle is staggering. One fashion designer, Gary Harvey is creating a name for himself by recycling and reusing things that are no longer seen as fashionable. Once a designer for Levi’s Europe, and working with the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons he is now a famous fashion designer in his own right for creating unique, vintage, couture dresses.

His first collection was shown at the Estethica exhibition at London Fashion Week in 2007 and was designed to try and change people’s perception of second hand clothing. He sources all his materials from second hand shops, where people may “…wear it one or two times then discard it because it's suddenly deemed aesthetically unimportant and out of date when there's years of life left in the garment.” For one of his most famous designs he took roughly 50 pairs of discarded Levi 501’s to create a unique, eco dress. His designs are interesting, quirky and show that something that has been discarded and thought of as unfashionable can be reborn and made into something beautiful. He also uses some less practical materials to create statements, like paper and cans.

For more information see;

http://inventorspot.com/articles/recycled_fashion_and_designers_g_8871

http://gliving.com/gary-harvey-fashionably-political/

Harvey believes that all fashion in the future will become sustainable; he believes that this is because fashion can’t sustain itself if the industry continues at this current rate. This is not a bad thing to hope for, because if clothes are more sustainable the impact from the changing of seasons and fashion trends will be less

I think more designers can learn from him.