Entry 9

Over the quarter my topic has changed. At the beginning I was very focused on creating a working definition of upcycling. I wanted to educate others on the topic of waste production. Not only that, I was determined to introduce the idea of cradle-to-cradle industrial and social systems. By adopting a designer’s persona I was able to focus less on specific definitions and focus more on interesting discoveries. My first observation when studying upcycling was the lack of methodology in project design. I started noticing a trend that upcycled product weren’t marketed for their quality, they were generic and constructed quite simply. As a designer this surprised me because this market is not growing, there’s no demand for these low quality products. With this observation I started a working thesis focused on the market in a cradle-to-cradle system. My research allowed me to analyze our consumer society. We have become a throw-away community. This waste production supports upcycling. 

With this analysis I began making a proposal for an applicable market. I found evidence to support unique apparel design in a cradle to cradle system. These products would appeal to an individualistic market based on quality because they are unique as well as sustainable.  I hope that this analysis of upcycling educates others and allows for advancements in recycled product design.

Entry 8

Waste responsibility lies in the hands of the government; encouraging a throw-away society. The system we use here in the U.S. allows anyone to discard of anything virtually anywhere. The convenience of discarding waste allows us as citizens to disregard any feeling of guilt. By allowing private sectors to control waste there is a higher probability of controlling environmental pollution. Waste management should be more personal for individuals. There is a notion that throwing away gets rid of things, but it’s just displacement: to a trash can, to a dump, to a hole in the earth. The problem lies in not feeling responsibility on a personal level. Each individual discards minimal waste but combined all those individuals become a really big problem. We have to start controlling our consumption waste on an individual level. The public needs to abandon a carefree, guiltless lifestyle to start understanding the problem with waste. By putting waste management on a personal and individual level less resources and energy are wasted. Cradle-to-Cradle Certification allows environmental and economic control to be governed by private businesses and individuals. By focusing on the repercussions it becomes our individual responsibility to instill sensible solutions like upcycling and cradle-to-cradle systems that benefit both the economy and the environment.

Entry 7

I've been really surprised by my observations on Twitter. All the upcycling related posts I've read have been DIY ideas or low-end products. I'm very curious as to why upcycling markets haven't reached high-quality. I think high quality markets are the most probable to be successful in the economy because they propose a unique product. The most successful company, TerraCycle has achieved brilliant success from creating low-end products like zipper pouches. How? They created a unique product that appealed to everyone. Their products are made from recycled candy and snack wrappers. This specific example leads me to believe that successful upcycled products need to be unique and appeal to the consumer; they don't necessarily have to be applied to a high-class market.

Through Twitter I have found that a lot more people than I expected are educated on upcycling. I think the biggest thing hindering advancement of this system is the lack of education in industrial and social systems. I hope to find an interesting way to incorporate this data in my research paper without my observations sounding extremely opinionated. I think it's really important to highlight the methodology in design of these products (examples on Twitter) to support my opinion on quality in upcycling markets.

I don't think I'll incorporate my survey in my final research paper. It's hard to pinpoint a certain group of people educated in cradle-to-cradle systems.

Entry 6

In my most recent research I discovered the terms biological and technical nutrients. These refer to the components that make every product on earth. Cradle-to-cradle aims to separate these components after a product is broken down. The goal is to cycle technical nutrients so that no new technical nutrients are added to the system. A technical nutrient is anything non-biological like plastic. A biological nutrient like cotton can be reused or recycled through the environment. This is the basis of the cradle to cradle framework; recycling and reusing nutrients to create new products. In order for this to succeed no nutrients can be downcycled because that eventually becomes waste. Downcycling is the opposite of upcycling. Downcycling reuses material from a valuable product to make a less valuable product. Essentially it loses its value over time ultimately becoming waste. Downcycling is a part of cradle-to-grave systems. Biological and technical nutrients follow a life-cycle. A broken product is disassembled into biological and technical components as waste. Technical resources are then combined with new organics in an assembly facility to create new technical products. Organic waste undergoes biological degredation providing mineral and organic nutrients for crops. New crops are harvested and refined for direct consumption or use in technical products. This can be seen in the following diagram. By reusing these waste nutrients a regenerative economy is created. A regenerative economy allows both the environment and economic systems to flourish. The most important part of this system is its ability to control waste.

Entry 5

“Upcycling: Convening Waste Plastics into Paramagnetic, Conducting, Solid, Pure Carbon Microspheres.”: The recent tremendous increase in the volume of waste plastics (WP) will have a harmful environmental impact on the health of living beings. Hundreds of years are required to degrade WP in atmospheric conditions. Hence, in coming years, in addition to traditional recycling services, innovative "upcycling" processes are necessary”

Vilas Pol says “the recent tremendous increase in the volume of waste plastics (WP) will have a harmful environmental impact on the health of living beings.” In his article Upcycling: Convening Waste Plastics into Paramagnetic, Conducting, Solid, Pure Carbon Microspheres Pol states that it takes “hundreds of years… to degrade WP in atmospheric conditions.” He makes it very clear that “in addition to traditional recycling services, innovative "upcycling" processes are necessary” to reduce our waste impact on the environment. Upcycling is the act of taking waste and turning it into a useful high quality item. According to Katelin Butler “the term "upcycling" was first used in 1994, in… Germany, where recycled materials were always reconstituted rather than reused as they existed before.” This trend has become popular with the green movement and is often correlated with economic and environmental advancements. Often times it is a key component in cradle-to-cradle social and industrial systems.

The Electrochemical Energy Storage Department, Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division from Illinois illustrates the harmful effects of plastic wastes on the environment. I will use the supporting evidence of how plastic waste harms and how upcycling can eliminate that impact. The argument is that chemical waste such as plastics are harming the environment and we need to do more than recycle to stop this process. This will help shape my paper by giving me evidence that supports how reducing chemical waste we can reuse it and make it into a product. Chemicals can be mixed and changed to benefit upcycling systems; I will use this as supporting data.

Entry 4

Part One:

Taste The Waste, a documentary by Valentin Thurn, gives an excellent analysis on human waste and our lack of personal responsibility for it. We waste tons of food every day that could be used to help countries in need. The real problem comes down to us not feeling responsibility on a personal level. Each individual discards minimal waste but combined all those individuals become a really big problem. We have to start controlling our consumption waste on an individual level. The public needs to abandon their carefree, guiltless lifestyle to start understanding our problem with waste. The system we use here in the U.S. allows anyone to discard of anything virtually anywhere. The convenience of discarding waste allows us as citizens to disregard any feeling of guilt. But, where does the waste go, and do we think about that when throwing something away? If we focus on the repercussions more people will realize how much they are really wasting. Upcycling is a great way to use this waste.

A very important underlying ideal of upcycling is to reduce and eliminate waste; especially that of industry. Using a cradle-to-cradle system allows all components of a product to provide a sustainable service, leaving no unused waste.  As the video shows our creativity in discarding is extremely limited. Innovations to reuse waste are desperately needed to reduce our impact on the environment. Using upcycling techniques can create a beneficial coexistence for the economy and environment. Using the ideals of upcycling, waste disposal will become more personal and fall in the hands of individuals.

Entry 3

Part one: A good question is one that requires more than a “yes” or “no” as a reply. When asked a good question it sparks intriguing anomalies and discourse. A question must serve to retrieve information but it must also generate trust. Even with the best question, without trust no one will answer.  There must be a way to encourage an interviewees truthful opinion, and it’s possible if you ask in the correct way. How do you know when to trust an answer? A question serves as the introductory palette for information to be shared. In order to retrieve the most information a question could be asked in a multitude of different ways, creating unique responses each time. More specific questions help to expand answers and asking questions of those questions provokes deep thought and understanding.

The questions leading my end research paper have formed almost as a collage, starting from one idea and branching out to explore others. I started simply with: how can upcycling benefit the economy while improving the environment? This was a question I had already explored and gave me my basic understanding of upcycling and cradle-to-cradle systems. But, I wanted to focus on something more specific that I could relate to. How can fashion design benefit upcycling? This last question seemed to be too broad until I stumbled across one of my articles and was inspired by a critique. The author criticizes upcycling as being too generalized and says it lacks critical design elements. Which brought me to: how can quality design better benefit upcycling compared to generalized design? This question has helped me find tons of data to explore an interesting arguable topic. Next I hope to find answers to questions like how does the economy benefit from quality upcycled products.

Part two: For my research I joined an online community in order to observe. I created a twitter and started following upcycling companies or similar organizations. So far I have observed a lot of publicity for upcycling and green washing. Organizations like Ecouterrre and Inhabitat are constantly posting interesting information for the public and plenty of news updates on environment-friendly happenings. Interestingly, I find hardly any economic information from following these companies. This makes me wonder whether they are really beneficial advancements. Today I learned that it takes $4,000 to break down and reuse plastic bags that end up only being worth $32. This kind of information really sparks my interest and makes me want to learn more about my topic.

Entry 2

Part One: After writing my counter argument I realized I may need to narrow my topic even further to find interesting contradictions that will support my opinion. A lot of interesting articles appeared as I did my research but I think different types of research are going to be more beneficial for my topic. Observational methods will give me an alternate viewpoint in my reflections.  In the process of creating my counter argument my thesis changed a lot. I started focusing specifically on quality upcycled products affecting economies compared to more generically designed products. This comparison allowed me to talk freely about upcycling basics, its effects on the economy and environment, and the benefits to quality based design.

Part Two: In the review of Upcycling Create Beautiful Things With the Stuff You Already Have the author reveals that “what is lacking… is philosophy and methodology in project design.” The author is analyzing the components involved in the article Upcycling Create Beautiful Things With the Stuff You Already Have. These products are lacking in quality and uniqueness and therefore can’t thrive in a quality based market. In order to support a cradle-to-cradle system these products have to be of higher value while eliminating waste impacts on our environment and economy.  His viewpoint can help my article by showing the difference between DIY and upcycling and how it can help design. I plan to use this as supporting evidence to support my claim that upcycling can positively impact the economy and environment through design. Quality repurposed products such as designer gowns made from deteriorated garments will attract dependable markets. A product must meet a series of requirements to be deemed upcycled and it must abide by a series of waste restrictions comparable to environment-friendly standards. Today the problem with upcycled products is they tend to be designed with usefulness as the most important component. The designs are easy to execute leaving the products appearing as generic DIY projects.

Entry 1

During our Gaps free-write in class my thesis and overall topic evolved into something very specific and interesting. I started asking questions like: 

“why is upcycling focused on cheaper design? 

Why is upcycling not focused on quality merchandise?

Why is upcycling very DIY oriented?” 

Eventually, I focused specifically on individualism and quality. I began brainstorming key phrases for the counter argument based on these ideas: 

“specific items of higher quality, 

individual, 

profitable, 

upcycling is generalized.” 

My thesis could now stem from something more basic:

“Individualistic upcycling apparel design will stimulate the economy and reduce waste impact on the environment,”

to something more specialized: “upcycled apparel designs focused on individuality and quality will stimulate the economy while reducing waste impact on the environment.” 

At the end of the activity I listed the important ideas I had created: 

“higher quality, 

individualistic design, 

green washing, 

upcyling design generalized.” 

This free-write allowed me to narrow my topic and find an interesting contradiction within my area of interest. Instead of just focusing on how upcycling benefits the economy and environment I’m exploring how it specifically achieves that through design and what types of design are beneficial.

The work in class along with the counter argument has really grounded my opinion and helped me realize that I want to focus specifically on how quality apparel design can benefit a cradle-to-cradle industrial system. I’m excited to integrate different forms of research into my final research paper that should culminate into an interesting proposal for beneficial social and industrial systems.