Cradle-to-Cradle

This week’s assignment was to implement an idea that takes one product and extends the life to another product of equal or more value. I decided to think of a product in the technical nutrients category and came up with upcycling cardboard boxes (only non-waxed cardboard would work) . As we all know in the apparel industry we use an abundant amount of cardboard boxes from shipping items we sell or to receive items from other companies. At my internship I would see over 100 boxes a day easily and all we did with them was bale them and set them out by the curb. 

Then someone from a recycling company would drive by and pick them up. We never knew what happened to them. My idea for this cradle-to-cradle assignment would be to come up with some type of company that bought plain cardboard boxes and made them into household decorating objects such as picture frames, shelving, or even rugs. Currently picture frames and inexpensive shelving are made up of plastic and are mostly just imitating wood. So why not take cardboard boxes, something this is just thrown away or broken down and make it into items we are already going to buy? From experience it seems like there are more boxes being made then recycled. I got this idea from our reading Waste Equals Food when Henry Ford implemented taking the shipping crates and turning them into the floorboards of his cars.  There a number of websites out there that tell or show people how to take cardboard and make into to something.

But no manufacturing companies at the moment. Another great thing about cardboard is that it is decomposable over time and, according to the video Rhoener Textiles making sure products from the beginning can be out back into the Earth as food is what manufacturing companies need to start doing. Once people no longer need their items then they can easily disassemble them (without sending it back to the company) and put in down (shredded or not) in their garden as a way to separate weeds fom the new soil you put down and to act as mulch (this I learned from my Nana who learned it from her dad). 

images from: 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20110129/domingosoacute-tora-upcycled-cardboard-furniture-sculptures-and-objects.htm

http://www.bmwagner.com/2012/02/539/

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/cardboardmulch#b

Cradle-to-Cradle

This week’s assignment was to implement an idea that takes one product and extends the life to another product of equal or more value. I decided to think of a product in the technical nutrients category and came up with upcycling cardboard boxes (only non-waxed cardboard would work) . As we all know in the apparel industry we use an abundant amount of cardboard boxes from shipping items we sell or to receive items from other companies. At my internship I would see over 100 boxes a day easily and all we did with them was bale them and set them out by the curb. 

Then someone from a recycling company would drive by and pick them up. We never knew what happened to them. My idea for this cradle-to-cradle assignment would be to come up with some type of company that bought plain cardboard boxes and made them into household decorating objects such as picture frames, shelving, or even rugs. Currently picture frames and inexpensive shelving are made up of plastic and are mostly just imitating wood. So why not take cardboard boxes, something this is just thrown away or broken down and make it into items we are already going to buy? From experience it seems like there are more boxes being made then recycled. I got this idea from our reading Waste Equals Food when Henry Ford implemented taking the shipping crates and turning them into the floorboards of his cars.  There a number of websites out there that tell or show people how to take cardboard and make into to something.

But no manufacturing companies at the moment. Another great thing about cardboard is that it is decomposable over time and, according to the video Rhoener Textiles making sure products from the beginning can be out back into the Earth as food is what manufacturing companies need to start doing. Once people no longer need their items then they can easily disassemble them (without sending it back to the company) and put in down (shredded or not) in their garden as a way to separate weeds fom the new soil you put down and to act as mulch (this I learned from my Nana who learned it from her dad). 

images from: 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20110129/domingosoacute-tora-upcycled-cardboard-furniture-sculptures-and-objects.htm

http://www.bmwagner.com/2012/02/539/

Oklahoma gives more than you think

As we are introducing new ideas and concepts to the world mimicking life (biomimicry) is becoming a trend of sorts. For example, when you go to the new addition of the student union at Oklahoma State University you will see in the study rooms the lighting fixtures mimic maybe a flower or a bee’s hive and there are windows all around.  I’ve learned in previous courses that the look of nature helps calm a persons nerves which is good before an exam or maybe studying for one like a group of students would be doing in these rooms. The point is that nature is “trending.” And maybe this is the wrong word because in my opinion the look and feel of nature will be around for a long time. Not just for the fact that nature calms us, but because we have a connection with nature, as we should. We shouldn’t want to control nature or try to copy it we should include nature into our lives. God put nature: land, plants and animals, here for us to use. Why shouldn’t we be incorporating it into our lives?

            My idea concept was going off of what Suzanne Lee stated briefly in her speech about her new textile. She mentioned using nature as a dying agent.  Meaning use dirt, plants, fruit, vegetable, or any other items in nature to dye textiles.  I haven’t done much research on this, but we have learned throughout the semester how harmful the chemicals in dying agents can be both to the environment and to the workers around them. About a year ago I did come across a t-shirt made (and dyed) in the state of Oklahoma. It was dyed with our very own red dirt. And honestly I’m drawn to that rust color so the shirt really attracted me. Bradley Quinn in Textiles Futures talks about how Janie Benyus said nature produces a good amount of normal, everyday materials that we, as humans, could use to improve our lives. Nature gives us so much, but as we have learned humans find one resource and take it till there is no more to take. Why shouldn’t we utilize a little bit of everything? If we do this, in the right way, we are likely to see an improvement in consumption. The right way to me means giving back as much as we take. Make the dye baths to where we can pour it back into the Earth: no toxic chemicals allowed.  In order to achieve such a new concept would require, however, more respect to our land than we are currently giving. Eventually our home will not produce what it is currently if we continually act as if the Earth means nothing. It means everything.