What Happens When a Reusable Something Breaks? Time for a New Path
In recent years, consumer consciousness about the need for and economic value of making use of reusable packaging, containers and the like has risen a great deal, elevating (or should I say broadening) the range of people who actively and regularly choose to seek out such options. Water bottles and shopping bags are the primary examples of this, bottle options having gone from the Hippie staple Nalgene and not much else to decidedly trendy designs, drawing in those that may not even have factored ecological considerations into the equation when making their purchase decision.
However they’re getting there, we in the industries that design, make, and reuse packaging are pleased it’s happening. But there’s a problem: What happens when these things break?
The majority of reusable shopping bags are made with price point and visual presentation, not durability in mind. Their aim is to lower the barrier to purchase as far as possible, to in the end save stores money spent on paper/plastic bags. But when that bag rips a seam, busts a handle, what’s a non sewing savvy consumer to do? And that chic water bottle that got dropped 5 feet and irrevocably dented? Not something that’s going in the recycle bin any time soon.
These are issues that we as product producers, and you as packaging designers and recyclers need to think about.
We at TerraCycle, together with Ziploc are beginning to do something about a reusables brand that’s been around since long before being green was in vogue. Just about everybody owns or has used a Ziploc product, from the ubiquitous blue lidded food containers to its sandwich bags (which I just recently learned are all phthalate free)
Now, K through 12th grade schools across the US will be able to collect any Ziploc product, and earn 2 cents per unit for their school. Between students, teachers and parents, that is a potentially substantial amount of material that will now be used in making coolers, trash cans, and much more, rather then having no place but the landfill to go at end of life.
It’s time to go beyond designing products for reusability to thinking about the end of life/next use for them.
Readers: What other reusable things that you design or use could likewise be upcycled, recycled, or otherwise found a secondary use when the primary is done? How so? I look forward to hearing from you.
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Tom Szacky,
Hello and good day my name is MarcosMangual intellectual idea giver for the CUT AND CAP idea used by BP Oil. I am a unlicsense electricain with great ideas. I have just watch 3 segments of your show and I have actually come up with several innovative ideas from the ones you have given on your GARBAGE MOGUL show. I think I can be a good, maybe great asset to you and your company. I have current inventions validated by scientist working for major univerties. I have no job nor any fancy degree but I can brainstorm with the best in the world atleast thats what my confidence exudes. Given the oppertunity I think I can push the envelope for creating a better world.
My observation of the show is that you might need a person like me who thinks outside of the box at times. My purpose for this letter is to hope that you can give me a chance in life to make something out of myself so my 4 kids can llok up to and say with great admiration, "that's my dad". I will give you my infinate amount of effort for giving me the oppertunity. With the money I can earn from being employed I could focus on patenting my ideas as well as suing BP for not giving me recognition or compensation for my intellectual idea.
Respectfully,
Marcos Mangual
PS
I would be willing to travel and live overseas since that is where my to youngest sons live.
Tom,
I can agree with your sentiment that we need to rethink 'end of life', but your article made me wonder a few things:
1) How many people really consider Ziploc a 'reusable' brand vs. a 'disposable' brand? Judging by the number of Ziploc bags I collected the first week we rolled out our Ziploc Terracycle brigade, not many. Sure, there are still some people around who rinse their bags out and reuse them, but I'm willing to be it's a small percentage of the people who buy these products.
2) What happens at the end of life for the coolers, trash cans, etc. that are being made out of these products? Will they again be upcycled or will they be landfilled?
I love Terracycle and think it's a fabulous stop-gap for the current status quo, but ultimately I think it's better if we start with sustainability instead of trying to figure out to do with a bunch of garbage that will never go away once it is created. Do we really need Ziploc bags when so many other things we use come in containers that can be reused? My kids take their lunch with snacks stored in empty butter containers instead of Ziploc bags. We'll still have to figure out something to do with the butter containers when they come to the end of their life, but one butter container = hundreds of Ziplocs.
It's great that Ziplocs don't have pthalates, but it's not as though they are "good" for the environment. And as far as product designers and recyclers needing to do the thinking, what is a recycler supposed to do about a product with 7 different types of materials solidly fused together as some drink bottles are currently sold? What about instead of designing products for reusability we design them for sustainability?
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