STRATEGY 2 - DESIGN FOR RECYCLING 

 

​ABOUT: 

This strategy explains how when you design for recycling / upcycling, the thought process is very different, but totally connected to, the practice of recycling textiles. This strategy includes discussion of the polyester economy.

 

Design for upcycling is about "not merely conserving the resources that went into the production of particular materials, but adding to the value embodied in them by the application of knowledge in the course of their recirculation" (Murray, 2002)

 

 

• Designing for recycling/upcycling from the outset (pro-active approach)

• Responding to existing garments/materials to Recycling/ Re-engineering a product/garment (reactive approach)

• Upcycling – adding value through process or concept to existing garments/materials

• Transfer printing onto polyester to produce up-cycled products

• Closed-loop recycling (forward recycling) of post consumer polyester

• Monomateriality

• Borrowed materials

• Design for disassembly

 

Above information has been repost from TED webiste (http://www.tedresearch.net/2-design-recycling-upcycling/). 

 

 

''Worldwide prosperity continues to increase, standards of living are rising and the world population continues to grow. But the earth remains finite. There is not enough space, not enough to eat, not enough water, too few resources and too little energy to continue to support the growing mass of people.

Despite this situation, it seems that we currently waste around 98 per cent of all available energy on this planet. In our existing energy system, the emphasis is on fossil fuels, with only moderate attention for green sources of energy. Because of the need to invest, new forms of energy are always considerably more expensive than traditional methods of extracting fossil fuels. And so we stick to the existing systems, in which we waste the majority of our resources. A large number of designers is concerned with this dilemma and operate outside the existing system to look at the problem from a completely different angle. '' 

 

 

Quote reposted from Boijmans Museum official website: www.boijmans.nl

(http://www.boijmans.nl/en/7/calendar-exhibitions/calendaritem/1499/design-column-7).