"What is one mans trash is another mans treasure."

            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.

Leather Goods

            We sit and ponder about what ideas we could come up with in the apparel industry to make our environment more sustainable. We think about t-shirts, jeans, cotton, polyester, and dye, to name a few, and how they affect our environment and have unsustainable characteristics but what many people do not think about is belts. This week I have come up with an idea for a small-scale concept that recycles old leather belts.

            In Chapter 5 of Sustainability, recycled materials and inorganic fabrics are popular because they can be made into fashion fabrics and interior textiles. My idea is to create a place where people recycle their old leather belts to be made into interior décor. Once recycled, the leather belts can be recreated to make rugs, chairs, tables, baskets, art, and accessories for the home. This idea will be unique because the locals that donated/recycle the belts and can come back and buy the décor that their belt(s) were used in or custom design an interior product they want made out of their own belts.

            One strategy by Janine Benyus that influenced my idea was “Optimize Rather Than Maximize.” Instead of people throwing away their unwanted, worn, and torn leather belts and causing waste, they can recycle their belts to a local store who will reuse the belts to make new interior goods out of the old ones. Many people believe that once something is old it needs to be thrown away and can not be used for anything else. I think having a store like this will hopefully motivate more people to recycle their belts because these raw materials can be made into something new and kept out of landfills. Also, instead of going out to buy the newest products for their house, they can have a unique and personalized interior product made from their own goods.

            Benyus’s principle “Shop Locally,” sticks out the most in this concept. She states that they are encouraging shoppers to shop and buy locally to sustain local economies. Shopping locally in small towns has significantly decreased because people do not want the same apparel or interior products as someone else. To prevent that, they travel to other cities to buy their products or online shop. With my idea, I want to create one-of-a-kind products that people will want to purchase because no one else will have the same one. In Chapter 6, Local and Light, tells us that local products are rare and are getting rarer. I want to create something that is rare. Recycling leather belts to be recreated into interior goods is pretty rare and therefore this rare idea will hopefully attract locals and enhance more local shopping and local, sustainable ideas.

Wasteful Thinking

            Over the past few weeks, we have learned that not many people know how much they “waste” on a daily basis and how “wasteful” things affects our environment. If there were options and solutions out there to solve these problems, maybe people would be more willing to be conscious about the products they could potentially be wasting. The Industrial Ecology article states, “every industrial activity is linked to thousands of other transactions and activities and to their environmental impacts.” This statement is telling us that when we buy products in the apparel or interiors industry and throw them away after we are done with them to reside in the landfills we are causing negative impacts on our environment with the waste we could have recycled and reused.

            We, as Americans, have a tendency of being “lazy,” therefore; the easiest way of getting rid of things is simply throwing it away. We also have become very technologically savvy, and like that we can do many things at home on the Internet instead of getting up to go do them. I have come up with a concept that I think will eliminate the waste of unwanted, worn, or torn natural or synthetic fibers. I think an outsourcing company that takes your waste materials and turns them into beach towels while offering you free shipping and packaging and a 10% discount on all your purchases would be a success for our society.

             In the chapter, How Will We Conduct Business?, one of the strategies used by Janine Benyus is to use waste as a resource. Instead of throwing your old t-shirts away you can ship them to the company and they will turn them into beach towels to be reused and resold. You would also benefit from this concept because you would be saving your money, getting rid of your unwanted garments, and receiving a discount on the goods.

            Another strategy that inspired this recycling company, that Benyus discusses, is using materials sparingly. This strategy implies that there can be multiple uses for one product. This made me think of how I could recreate a popular item into something that could be used in more than one way. T-shirts will form the most basic fabrication of a multi-use towel.

            When combining these two techniques, our mental modes can shift into a more positive outlook on reusing worn out products and not filling our environment with waste.