Don’t Rock The Cradle

“Cradle-to-Cradle” was a term I personally had not heard of before, but a concept that I found extremely interesting upon reading. The amount of toxins coming out of our mass-produced items was shocking, and the negative impact that this is creating on our biological environment is devastating. There is so many products that are designed without the environment in mind creating a “cradle-to-grave” life cycle. It became clear that it is possible to create production systems that are designed with a “cradle-to-cradle” approach producing items that have a full life cycle and a positive impact on the natural biology of the environment.

One of the examples I thought was key in explaining why this concept is so important was the story about the sewage pipes. Originally designed so that sewage sludge could be reused as fertilizer, which was seen to be an intuitive way of using waste for good to create a complete life cycle “waste is food”. But in fact, because the pipes had not been designed with our biological environment in mind the whole concept became a dead end, a solution that is now polluting the natural biological environment instead of aiding it. (McDonough, W. 2009)

Sewage Pipe Pollution (Hawkes, D. 2023)

A product that has successfully been cradle-to-cradle certified is “Ice-Stone”, made from recycled glass and cement. The product is used for countertops within the design field and is created with a non-toxic pigment, 75% recycled materials and 0% petrochemicals or resins. This product highlights that it is possible to design responsibly using materials that are non-toxic creating a positive impact rather than a negative. (Icestone 2024)

Ice-Stone Countertops (Icestone 2024)

I believe that concepts like “Cradle-to-Cradle” are the future of the design industry and can only be achieved with further education and connections between environmental studies and design history. We need to fully understand the processes in which the materials and products we choose have been treated and manufactured so we as designers can become part of the “cradle-to-cradle” life cycle and make positive design choices.

Having this kind of knowledge as a designer will allow us to make informed decisions on the built environments we are creating. By using this knowledge, we could design built environments that have a 100% biologically safe impact on nature. This is surely our responsibility as designers if we are going to create a positive impact on the climate crisis.

Bibliography:

Hawkes, D. 2023. How to fix the UK’s sewage overflow problem. https://www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/ice-blogs/the-infrastructure-blog/how-to-fix-uk-sewage-overflow-problem  Accessed on 07/10/2024

Icestone USA, 2024. Get to Know Icestone. https://icestoneusa.com/get-to-know-icestone/ Accessed on 08/10/2024

McDonough, W. (2009) Cradle to cradle : remaking the way we make things /. London :, Vintage