Cheng Yu
Community Event
I went to a lunch held at Furman Hall on Dec, 4th. It was a meeting where the speaker, Maria Lotz, talked about innovating products. When I got there, all the food was set up on the table. The speaker welcomed each visitor with a kind smile. When every one sat down in comfort and started to talk, the speaker suddenly informed us about something that gave us a jump. She pointed at a webcam which was pointing at us, and said it was directly connected to Germany. That meant, people from headquarter were looking at us right at that moment. After some loose jokes we finally got into the mood of receiving the speech.
Maria started the speech with an interesting experiment. She pulled out two books and set a bow full of water in front them. She put both books in it and started to rip one of them. In the end, that book became nothing but a pile of garbage. However, the other one stayed intact, and with a little wipe it was as new as before. According to her explanation, the book was the first book in German that was made up of plastic. This unique characteristic makes it waterproof as well as fun to read. She went on explaining how this product will not lose its quality even when being recycled for several times. Maria defined that as down recycling, and told us many recycles, such as recycling of paper, are down recycling. The reason for that is because when being recycled once, the paper can no longer be used as paper. This is also called cradle to grave. However, plastic is different; they can remain their original state after the process. This, she called, is cradle to cradle. It was being inspired by cherry blossom which produces no waste even when all the petals fall to the ground.
With that being done, she Maria went further with the idea of cradle to cradle. She said it was the idea of designing something with its side effects and whole life cycle in mind. It has to make sure that the product can enter a cycle of eternity; can be used again and again without degrading. She generalized it into 4Rs; reduce, reuse, recycle, and regulate. Product designed according to the cradle to cradle theory use materials that are non toxic as well as recyclable in biological cycles.
After an overview of the differences between cradle to grave and cradle to cradle, she started to talk about all the new products that were being made using this idea. The first example was a chair, “Mirra”, made by Herman Miller; 96% of it was made up of cradle to cradle materials. However, the company was aware that most consumers don't care about eco-friendly product, so they did not include this element as part of the promotion. The second product was Rohner Textiles, which produces textile that rot in 100 days if being thrown into soil. Tetra packs invented plastics for packaging that can be separate from the card board once being used. The plastic can be recycled, and therefore, it changes a non cradle to cradle product to one. She mentioned many other renovating companies until she got to the most important one, Loick Biowerstoffe. This company produces things such as forks and spoons that can rot in soil, as well as children’s toys made from corn and water. After the summery of the companies, she ended her presentation.
Many people asked questions about the new products. The main ones addressed the doubts of whether these products will be widely used. The expensive prices are definitely a problem. If most people can not afford it, the products will not help the environment. People also questioned about the infrastructure of these products. Will they be recycled properly? How will the companies retrieve the products after being used? Many of the questions Maria could not answer because companies need to keep much information a secret.
The meeting was very interesting. The speaker was able to create a very comfortable atmosphere for everyone. The experiment was able to get people into the presentation mood immediately. In addition, I could see that all the innovating products really got people excited. During this short meeting, I learned many interesting innovations people around the world are inventing. Their main purpose was to incorporate eco friendly materials. I also learned that most items aren’t recycled the way I used to believe. I didn't realize the quality of the paper reduces as it is being recycled again and again until it becomes a total waste. People should, therefore, be worried about the amount of goods we are producing each day. I also realized how hard it is to push these products out onto the market. Their prices scare many middle and lower class consumers away.
In my opinion, I think the speech was interesting to hear. However, it’s hard to relate to it because it did not raise a lot of awareness. It’s sad, but most people are selfish. They only want to get eco friendly products when they have nothing to lose, or when they realize how their lives will be damaged if they don't use it. The speech didn't address a lot of problems cradle to grave products create in the world. I think she should first create this sense of urgency, and then go into cradle to cradle products. In addition, many visitors went there to learn about these new ideas, in order to go into that field themselves. However, most of them were students and people who were already well informed. Therefore, I think, though the speech was rather effective it should be able to reach the ears of many others who are not that well informed.