craftastic

Continuing what I started with food consumption, production and waste, I started to think about all the take-out food containers that end up as trash. You can reuse plastic silverware, but most people do not. And I would think that next to no one reuses those folded cardboard cartons. Take-out food is such a huge part of our eating habits, especially for students and city dwellers in general. I think there should be a better way to design these things to reduce waste and promote reuse. Ideally, if you wanted to take out food, you could bring your own container that you have bought and continue to use, but this is unrealistic and fairly impractical.

The more I researched, the more I realized that this has been done before. But seemingly not mass-marketed and potentially more expensive. And not pretty. This is a really interesting product - cutlery that is made from potatoes:

spudware

which this company, vegware, also does - but specializes in food-based and biodegradable ‘disposable’ implements of all sorts. And what’s nice about the site is that it is simply but nicely designed, unlike most of the other very generic ones I have looked into. I think people need to feel like they are buying something special and also that it be apparent the lengths they have gone to make a choice for sustainability.

For consumers to pay $20 for 50 spoons, forks and knives is a lot though. If you could eat them afterwards…maybe a different story. And even at vegware, the products are not designed as to suggest their distinction from the throw-away non-biodegradable stuff.

Ecoproducts makes biodegradable plastic food containers. But unfortunately they are made from corn. And if you were to read Pollan’s ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma,’ which I suggested in my last post, you can start to understand the major problems associated with corn in the US. Also, they look just like the regular throw-away ones, which I think is problematic in the sense that you might not know which is which. Plus, I think there is something valid in making the product to reflect its biodegradability, even simply, almost to signify the value in it. And a company that makes their whole business on the industry, Biodegradable Food Service, LLC. But they also use corn. There seem to be many companies that use corn starch as pseudo-plastic.

http://www.bdfs.net/

Is using potato starch better than corn starch? I don’t know, maybe at the least in preventing a complete monoculture. But what if these were designed to be used differently instead of just thrown away effectively? Either way it is a lot of manufacturing of materials.

the culprits:


I’m looking at possibly making the container something good for shipping, or making it turn into a cup with snap closures. It could have a strip (like on a toothbrush) that wears down when you need to throw it away into a compost heap, for instance. The cutlery is more difficult. I’m working on it….

edible cutlery?
If it is possible to make food based cutlery, would it also be possible to make cutlery that is strong enough for single use and then edible? Like a hard candy fork. So after you’ve had your take out lunch and are looking for something sweet….you eat your fork. Then of course the cutlery would have a shelf life. Plus the plastic wrapping that is on some cutlery would not only be necessary, but require another environmental solution.

packaging-to-packaging
It seems logical that the coated paper containers for take out food, like this

could be used for other packaging. Or padding for packaging at least. It might be interesting to research a material like the durabook that Cradle to Cradle is printed on - it is more sturdy than regular paper but waterproof, unlike a lot of other mailers, and would last some time.

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One of the environmental issues that I tend to focus on is the issue of sustainability in agriculture. Not only is it a serious problem environmentally, but I also love food and it scares me the more I learn about how food is made. Forgive me - it has been a while since I have read some of these texts, so I will do some generalizing and paraphrasing. Most modern systems of food production and distribution are seriously flawed. If you suspend the issue of world hunger for this discussion, the environmental and health
concerns that modern agriculture raises is frightening. Although there are countless groups that support the cause, it tends to be a fringe issue and, for some reason, usually understood to be only for hippies and yuppies. Even with environmentalism being talked about more and more in the political and media arenas and the sudden influx of organic products, attention is not really given to the agricultural issue as a whole. Which I find really strange, because it encompasses so many environmental problems and doesn’t just concern what’s happening to the land but goes straight into our mouths. And people don’t take the time to realize that large scale organic farming is sometimes almost as bad as regular industrial farming, just without the pesticides.

just some of the issues that today’s agricultural practices raise:
- soil contamination, which leads to aquifer contamination, which leads to fresh and salt water contamination and threatens marine wildlife through the use of pesticides and fertilizers
- major fuel consumption in production and manufacturing
- major fuel consumption in shipping and distribution
- water table, stream, river, sea contamination from pesticides and fertilizers
- animal cruelty, if you can watch a documentary or look at detailed photos showing how they keep, feed, and slaughter cows and chickens while eating a macdonald’s hamburger….
- the fact that we eat diseased animals stuffed to their eyeballs with antibiotics and growth hormones which are compromising our immune systems
- massive clearcutting of world forests which leads to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, soil erosion, pollusion from slash and burning
- human health, including trans fats, obesity- especially child obesity, diabetes, food-born illness
- genetically engineered crops
- there is corn in everything. seriously, it’s really disturbing. what if there is a corn blight or something?
- why is everyone getting cancer now? hmmmm

It’s such a complex issue, but just a few points and some facts. There are growing local foods movements, networks of certified naturally grown farms, organizations of food growers and restauranteurs that adhere to certain qualities of food production and use, etc. And at least with the abundance of organic this and that everywhere, people realize it’s an issue, so even if most people don’t dig deep enough, some people do.
- more than a quarter of the products in the grocery store contain corn, including non-food items
- Earthbound Farm is responsible for 80% of the organic lettuce in the country. So we have supposedly organic lettuce being shipped 5,000 miles for sustainability
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a short reading list of interesting books:

The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan. Published just last year, this is a really accessible, enjoyable, interesting read, though disturbing as well. He explores three types of food production - industrial, organic and self-grown/foraged - and uncovers some really interesting facts about America’s eating habits and agriculture. It sounds dry, but it isn’t, he writes for the New York Times Magazine and he’s really hands-on in his approach.

Silent Spring Rachel Carson. It started it all. Published in 1962, this was a seminal book in alerting the public to the environmental and health dangers of widespread pesticide use in agriculture.

The Gift of Good Land and The Unsettling of America Wendell Berry. Berry wrote what are considered to be classics in the genre in the 60’s and 70’s.

Eat Here Brian Halwell. All about the local foods movement.

Animal Liberation Peter Singer. One the most influential text ever written about the ethical treatment of animals. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to be a vegetarian, but the description of factory farms is so eye-opening that you have at least consider where you get your meat from.

a whole bunch of farming books by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms

websites and things to look up:
Polyface Farm, Virginia, owned and run by Joel Salatin. If you read Omnivore’s Dilemma and don’t wish Polyface Farm was in your state, then there’s something wrong with you.

slowfood.com The slow food movement with local chapters.

ediblecommunities.com Publishing magazines locally in cities across the country about local foods and really well designed!

grist.org Environmental news

sare.org Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

chefscollaborative.org Local chapters with restaurant members that care where the food on your plate came from.

naturallygrown.org Certified Naturally Grown farms and communities. It’s better than organic in many ways.

foodroutes.org Where does your food come from?

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AS IT IS
One of the prime examples of living in excess today is the whole arena of baby goods. My mother, who babysits my new nephew every week, is constantly horrified by the number of products and gadgets the modern mother feels they need to care for a baby. Since all of my relatives have recently had one or more babies, I can definitely attest to the baby gluttony going on. From the drifts of toys and stuffed things cramming their home, along with some fairly large, frightening objects that look like plastic crayola colored versions of medieval torture devices, it’s a wonder all of us made it to adulthood without those things.

As a result of these overindulgences, new parents move through the world like a caravan of nomads. And the rest of us have to deal with it. The classic example is the baby carriage. They are everywhere - huge plastic and fabric monstrosities. Parents take up the whole grocery isle, clip your heals on the streets, require two assistants to get in and out of doors and forget about stairs. The modern baby carriage is the SUV of the gadget world. Or depending on the maker - a ‘57 buick. The worst thing about it is these pushers of carriage project an attitude of ’space entitlement.’ Because they are traveling en masse, they think they have a right to all the room they are taking up in the world.
Some sites that show exactly what i’m talking about:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2718786

This PICK UP TRUCK, is specifically marketed to be able to hold a baby stroller. There is something fundamentally wrong about that.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://info.detnews.com/dn/pix/2005/02/02/0drive/dr02-RidgelineGate-0205n_02-02-2005_I8429N5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosconsumer/0502/02/G01-76895.htm&h=267&w=400&sz=37&hl=en&start=30&tbnid=opCyewpjLE03xM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbig%2Bbaby%2Bstrollers%26start%3D18%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

this modern stroller next to something I used to sit in. Seems overly component heavy. And this is not even one of the big ones.
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This is an example of some of the features of a typical running stroller:

The 2007 Ditto™ Jogger Lite — Dreamer Design’s mid-level, double jogging stroller — comes equipped with everything you need for running or walking with your little ones.

Features
# Welded aluminum frame
# Handbrake with parking button
# Rear footbrake
# Easy compact folding
# Large dual footplate with easy clean recessed leg area
# Dual reclining seats
# Under seat storage basket
# Breathable padded seating area
# 5-point harness
# Many convenient parent and child pockets
# Safety wrist strap and key leash
# Fully rotating dual Bubble Sun Canopy™ with dual pivot system
# Large view port canopy windows
# Canopy side ventilation system
# Removable and machine washable fabric
# Reflective fabric and binding

tTHE TRUTHS
Therefore, to help the new parents of the world I have composed an informative master list, in an effort to dispel common motherhood misconceptions about the baby carriage and how they affect the rest of the world, :
1. baby carriages are not wheelchairs. You and your children are not ‘handicapped’ and the space you take up is not necessary.
2. your child is not an angel in elephant’s clothing. Babies are about one quarter the size of an adult. They should not take up the space of three grown people.
3. motherhood is your choice, not necessarily ours. I’m sure your child is super, but I don’t think our lives necessarily have to revolve around them.
4. just because a product is marketed for children, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for them. We have all read about contaminated food from China and recalled faulty products from China and potentially harmful off-gassing and residues. Well, I hate to break it to you, but your baby carriage was probably made in China or at least some of the parts were. This is not necessarily special ‘baby plastic.’ It’s just regular plastic - the kind that off-gases and has residues that your child could potentially lick off. Why feed your child organic carrots from Whole Foods if you are pushing them around for two hours in a carcinogen-mobile.
5. everything you give to your child is depleting the rest of the world. …including you, and them, later in life.
6. do you really need all that stuff? no, seriously…NEED. like food and water and air

A NEW BABY MOBILE
This is partly the fault of a capitalistic society. New parents are subject to the mass market like anyone else and they are led to believe they need things. It is not that easy to dispel these myths. But maybe designers are partially to blame. Even the carriages that look nicer are not necessarily more compact or enviro-friendly. There should be a baby carriage that can safely carry a child around AND be efficient AND look good. To make a better carriage, I have narrowed the list down to a set of basic directives:
1. it should only be as big as it needs to be It does not need to be big to be safe.
2. It should be environmentally friendly Not just for the rest of the world but for your child’s health.
3. it should make your life easier, not more difficult
4. it should not make the rest of our lives more difficult
5. it should look nice. We have to look at it too after all. And because all babies are NOT cute. Sorry, it’s true.

this might have come closest to being just what it needs to be:
http://www.my-joolz.com/media/photos/bloom.jpg

detechnologizing of the wheelchair - interesting….
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I have been trying to explore the idea of simplicity. Seems easy enough. It just seems like there are so many complicated and expensive technologies to do relatively simple things. It goes one of two ways: either we end up needing a lot of highly sophisticated, very specific things to do a lot of specific, but not necessarily complex things and we end up only using each of the things every two years. And then they fill up drawers and closets. The other way it goes is that we have ridiculously complex things that are unnecessary. I don’t need my phone to be a camera and a personal scheduler, but it seems like I don’t really even have a choice. There are several ways to approach this:

1. make a thing that is waste free.
This is not necessarily just the idea of material conservation, but that it has only the elements it needs to be what it is. It may be that it is so simple that it is not clear what it is until it is in use. And then you realize it is exactly what it needs to be and nothing more.

2. make a thing that can do multiple things.
Not because it’s complicated or electronically sophisticated, but just because it’s good. and smart.

a little bit of research…
Here’s a neat little flash drive. It tells you when it’s full. How handy.

http://www.plusminus.ru/flashbag.html

Droog design in the netherlands are pretty clever with their designs. Theoretical and strange also. But here’s just a strap:

Here’s another shoe rack. Doesn’t take up any floor space at all.

http://www.j-me.co.uk/products-buy/shoe-rack.php

Designboom’s competition for has a couple of interesting things
The winning table is a slick little piece.

http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=18&item_pk=13997&p=1

but maybe my favorite is this space saving prop device:

http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=18&item_pk=15088&p=3