The Designer's Compass - Part 1: The Carbon Equation: Decoding LCA and Tackling Plastic's Waste Crisis
The Designer's Compass: Navigating the Sustainable Material Wild West 1 The Designer's Compass - Part 1: The Carbon Equation: Decoding LCA and Tackling Plastic's Waste Crisis 2 The Designer's Compass - Part 2: Threadbare Truths and High-Heat Emissions: Balancing Reuse in Textiles and Metals 3 The Designer's Compass - Part 3: From Forest to Fired Clay: Re-evaluating Renewable and Mineral Resources 4 The Designer's Compass - Part 4: Beyond the Bin: Carbon Capture and Nature's Toolkit for Future Materials ← Series Home Key Takeaways LCA frameworks provide structured assessment of material impact: Cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, and full LCA studies offer different perspectives on environmental impact across the product lifecycle. The carbon cycle connects fossil fuels to global warming: Burning sequestered carbon from fossil fuels upsets the natural fast carbon cycle, releasing more CO2 than plants can absorb. Plastics present a waste crisis, not primarily an emissions problem: Designers should prioritize recycling solutions and waste stream management over virgin material alternatives. Material density significantly affects emissions comparisons: Comparing GWP (Global Warming Potential) requires accounting for the weight of specific parts, not just kilograms of material. Mechanical recycling faces major technical barriers: Sorting complexity, contamination, color mixing, and economic factors make plastic recycling challenging despite clear environmental benefits. The Designer’s Compass - Part 1: The Carbon Equation: Decoding LCA and Tackling Plastic’s Waste Crisis Materials serve as a central starting point for modern product design. Designers increasingly use materials as a vehicle for storytelling and a way to define user experiences. These stories focus on sustainability against a rapidly accelerating trajectory in global production. Materials offer one of the main ways designers influence product development toward reduced environmental impact. Understanding materials is challenging because they constantly evolve, lacking a clear target or endpoint. ...