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There is no such thing as a disposable product, as this merely relocates the problem into the neighbor's yard.
Editor's Comment: The following is a condensation of a longer article that carries an impassioned plea for stronger attention to the environment by those in design. As you read it, consider ways in wh ch you can introduce your students to the ideas set forth by Professor Caruso. For example, invite your students to pursue a scavenger hunt in their basements, garages, or attics for products that have fallen from use as a result of one or more of the reasons cited by the author. Ask them to bring such an object to class and present their analysis for its abandonment, how it might be recycled or reused, and how it could have been designed to avoid being cast off. Another approach would be to have each of your students purchase an inexpensive disposable product and present it, along with their ideas on how it may impact the environment and what other approaches the designer and manufacturer could have taken in producing the object.
Note: The original article featured an extensive bibliography. If you would like a copy, contact me at [email protected] or the author at [email protected].
The design process as described by many designers often fails to consider the concepts of environmentalism and ecology as an integral part of the process. Ecology is defined as the branch of science dealing with the interrelations of organisms and their environment; or, put more simply, the relationship between living organisms and their environments. A modern definition of ecology in relation to design is the relationship of the artifact with its environment and
John K. Caruso
the systems incorporated in the development and distribution of that object, as well as its effect on the natural resources (including that of human life). It is too often the primary goal of a designer to impart aesthetically pleasing form with design interaction.
No one in the development process can more easily effect change upon the social fabric of the ways in which the manufactured object impacts society other than the designer and the engineer. The objects we make and the way by which we make them tell more about a...