Thursday, 14 February 2008
Can we make more effort with materials and production?
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- View More On: Technology and Sustainability
The really great thing about being greener is it can combine better technology with sustainability with pure common sense. After going through the entire griinu Compare catalog it is apparent that there are different scales of green-ness in products.
Thinner and Stronger
Listening to You and Yours on Radio4 this week, I heard a story about new thinner glass bottles. A leader here seems to be Adnams whose supplier O-I who won a "gold star" in the Starpack Awards 2007. It shows how some effort and human ingenuity can create more sustainable designs. Details.
Recycling
Using recycled glass saves energy and raw materials and in 2005 reduced UK CO2 emissions by around 200,000 tonnes (British Glass)! Clearly, glass is one of the strongest cases for recycling.
So why isn't 100% recycled glass used in every bottle. Why don't O-I combine their innovations in making thinner bottles with technology to use 100% recycled glass?
Effort or Money?
In going through griinu Compare's catalog, I start to see a few trends. Some companies (eg Pangea) make incredible efforts, going beyond necessity to be more sustainable. These companies operate and seem successful. A product I came across at a trade show was a shopping trolley of sorts - an innovative design. The problem was, they had not innovated even slightly in materials or production. It was a largely powder coated steel, produced in China. So this product which might save some car journeys has a vast embodied energy.
Is it difficult?
Well, life is difficult! But surely we are capable of the effort, we are ready for the challenge!
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