While
reading the Cradle-to-Cradle article about the biological and technical
metabolisms, the technical metabolism stuck out to me. According to the Waste
Equals Food chapter, the biological metabolism is the cycle of nature whereas
the technical metabolism is the cycles of industry. When thinking about the apparel and interior industry, it is
best portrayed as having a technical metabolism because so many of our products
can be broken down into pieces and parts that can be reused to create a new
products. The technical metabolism allows us to reuse high-quality products
over and over instead of filling up our landfills causing harm to the
environment. Cradle-to-Cradle and Rohner Textiles also refers the technical
metabolism as the product of service and recreate a new end use of a product.
The saying, “what is one mans trash is another mans treasure” really applies to
this metabolism because today, many people believe that these technical
products are throwaway products instead of repairing them or creating a new
design product.
In
Western Oklahoma, where I come from, there is lots of farming and
ranching. With farming and
ranching come livestock, agriculture, equipment, and tools to keep the
operations going. What do the farmers and ranchers do with their old tools,
equipment, or parts that do not work anymore, are old and worn out, or that
they have no use for? Many of these durables, like Chapter 4 Waste Equals Food
states would be thrown away because they believe there is no use for them
anymore. I happen to think differently and have come up with a solution to
extend the life of these goods.
My
idea for an interior/exterior design would be to collect all the broken, worn,
torn, and unwanted tools and parts and make fence panels out of them to keep the
livestock in the pastures. Instead of throwing the metal and steel pieces away,
you could create artwork pieces while upcycling these materials that may be
considered waste. The scraps of materials would be welded together in your own
custom design to create the art piece. Some resources may include; hammers,
wrenches, tire spokes, shovels, saws, wheels, or nails. In this concept, you are “killing two
birds with one stone.” You are reusing these high-quality resources to
construct artwork as well as fencing the livestock in the territory. These
fences will be more meaningful too due to the fact that they once used these
materials to keep the farming and ranching operation going and now they are
being reused in a different way.
We
all have the tendency to throw things away because it is easy. We need to all
realize that we are creative and can reuse many products, parts, and pieces to
upcycle a new product from an old one.
Hi, Grace;
ReplyDeleteThis is a interesting idea and definitely stretches those "exterior" design skills! This would be much more aesthetically appealing than miles of boring fence. My question is: how do you keep the C2C cycle going with this concept? What happens at the end of the fence's life? C2C is not just about reuse, but the continuous cycle of material "food" flow.
Dr. Armstrong, thank you for your compliments! I agree, people would definitely have interesting fence but i think interesting is better than boring. This would give people a chance to express themselves with their own products while upcycling them as well. After the fences life, which would be a long way down the road, the iron, metals, and steel could be melted down (recycled) and sold to construction companies, automobile companies, fence companies, etc. Since metal plays such a huge role in our world, I do not think it would be hard to resell the materials over and over again. These materials, like the example of the automobile in the Cradle-to-Cradle article, can be crushed, pressed, and processed so you are optimizing every element of the products. The resources can then be resold to extend their life cycle since metals are a high quality product.
DeleteYou might also think about selling fence pieces as works of residential or commercial art. The photo file of the Quinn reading had some applications like this in it.
DeleteYes! I think that carrying on the large unique piece of art work would be a great idea. If someone became an expert at it and would take the time to make these pieces, they could for sure sell them in a gallery.
DeleteGrace,
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a very interesting idea! Another aspect of Technical Metabolism mentioned in the reading was that it was important to keep materials separated from one another so that we can truly re-use and upcycle materials. Perhaps one way this could be achieved with your idea is to have the tools separated into the various groups of metals (steel, aluminum, copper, etc) so that they can be melted down in their pure forms, allowing them to maintain their structural integrity. Once melted down, the metals could be re-formed into fence panels or strung out to create tension barriers. This way, by keeping the metals pure, they can be remelted and re-formed endlessly, and contributing to a true cradle 2 cradle cycle.
I agree with you, Beth! The metals should be separated due to the toxins all of them have in them and in making a pure product. I thought about that concept too. Melting them down to make new fence would be a great idea. Melting it down to make normal fence panels, post, and wire would be an idea for the tools too. We can do so much with metal products that I do not think it would be hard to find numerous ways to keep the Cradle-to-Cradle cycle alive. I just thought that the art is something unique and that could have meaning to it.
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