Empathizing ( Week 2 )

 EMPATHIZING

People are fully aware of the environmental condition and yet they do not recycle. This could be due to because of the busy lifestyle we lead, lack of knowledge about recycling, high cost, inconvenience etc. 

Nowadays, each one of us are so caught up in our work that at times we tend to forget about our responsibilities towards the environment. Life especially in cities move really very fast. Men and women are working tiresomely for their jobs and children are either careless or way too indulged in their own social lives and studies. Thus, instead of playing the blame game we must understand one another's problem. 

 

 

Most of us are not quite sure how to recycle. Although, adequate information can be found on the internet, in magazines, newspaper articles, journals etc. But I guess then we all are just a bit lazy,huh?

The question is which is more costlier ? Producing a new good or the amount spent on recycling it ?

Critics claim that recycling is not a very economical proposition. In New York it costs about $240 per ton to recycle glass, plastic or metal which is double the cost of throwing it away. Also, we are running out of landfill space. 

Recycling in quite an inconvenient procedure. It requires storage of garbage, their separation and also the recycling plants are generally not located inside a city. People nowadays tend to stay in an apartment and do not have adequate space for carrying out recycling programs and agendas.

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So now we do know a lot of reasons WHY People Do Not Recycle. Recycling is a very effective way to ensure the protection of our environment but at the same time, we all have our own priorities.

                              

Culture and Design Problem

CULTURE AND DESIGN PROBLEM

Culture can be defined as a social behavior or lifestyle which is adopted by a particular group of people. To our topic, I think it is kind off difficult to link our design solution to culture since recycling is more mainstream and would not vary like either using chopsticks or fork and knife to eat.

 

However, a new trend of designing items through recycled materials is what I think is the closest thing to culture. During school, I believe most of us have done this either by making a pen stand from a can , or a beautiful piece of jewelry from bottle caps etc. But nowadays, designers with great creativity have started designing dresses for always famous fashion shows!

 

Not only dresses but these environmental designers have designed other items as well. 

A purse made of computer keys. 

A tote bag made out of m and m's 

Chair made of tennis balls. 

Plastic bottles used as planters.

Jewelry made of can openers.

Making useful items like jewelry, bag etc is also a very smart way to use recycle items. The fashion shows grab a lot of attention and using recycled material for dresses in order to create awareness about various social issues is a perfect way to illustrate ''People Do Not Recycle'' towards the world and encourage them to do so.

  

Case Study

CASE STUDY 

For the development of our group's proposal on the topic ''People Do Not Recycle'', we decided to go for site investigation. However, we were not allowed by any of the Recycling Industries to pay a visit to their premises. So, we ended up walking around Tanjong Pagar but sadly even in that posh area, we could find garbage (non-biodegradable items as well) thrown all around the place. 

Only if people were more responsible they would not simple throw away cans or plastic bags everywhere. They would have done a better job by recycling it and keeping the city clean. 

Further the research done by the three of us on 2 magazines, 2 newspapaer articles and 2 books helped us to think beyond and work towards the topic. 

With not much time and the busy schedule of college, we could not do anything further in this week. 

References

As a part of my class assignment, I had to do a research on my topic ''People Who Do Not Recycle'' from 2 books, 2 magazines, and 2 newspaper articles. This is what I came up with-


BOOKS

Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel

The book is meant for young readers where a Superhero-Michael Recycle saves the town from Foul Smelling garbage by introducing ways through which people can recycle. The story is simple can also consists of basic tips which the little ones can easily imply in their lives. The book would surely instil a sense of responsibility towards environment amongst the little children and at the same time is fun to read.

Where Does The Garbage Go by Paul Showers

Well this one follows the journey of a garbage truck and through various graphs,charts and diagrams illustrates how waste can be get rid off more efficiently. It proposes methods to deal with excessive trash.

MAGAZINES 

Recycling today

The business magazine provides the recycling professionals important news in their field. It gives information about the various recycling programs going around the globe, their budget, their goals, their achievements and failures etc. The Recycling Today Media Group also facilitates Paper Recycling Conferences in various parts of the world like Asia, Europe, North America etc.



Recycling International

The 15 year old magazine provides comprehensive news on recycling technology and scrap market updates. It is directed towards the various industries in recycling.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES


Entrepreneurs succeed in transforming used PET plastic bottles into mineral paper- SCIENCE DAILY Article Dated- 15th January 2015

Plastic bottles can now be recycled into mineral paper which is cheaper, waterproof and meets the quality standards to print books etc. Calcium Carbonate and stone are the required materials to produce the ecological paper instead of harmful and expensive chemicals like chlorine.Making one tonne of paper requires 56,000  liters of water and 20 trees. Mineral paper would certainly make a lot of difference in our environment.

New Plastic That Dissapears When You Want It To- SCIENCE DAILY Article Dated- 25th November 2014

Plastic, a non bio- degradable element is the root cause of pollution these days. Our garbage generally comprises of plastic bottles and bags. But researchers at North Dakota State University,Fargo have promised a new technique to recycle plastic. If the plastic is exposed to a certain light, it can be broken down into molecules from which new plastic can be obtained!