Its important for industrial designers to understand recycling, as well as how packaging is made, in order to utilise this knowledge and apply it produce products that are environmentally sound. The more designers that watch these videos, the more environmentally friendly the field of industrial design will be.
The first series “how it is made” is great because it allows us to understand the entire process of manufacture – from raw material to final product – for a large number of different packaging alternatives; cardboard, tubes, tetrapak, cans, bottles/jars and glass. These videos are invaluable to an industrial designer, not only for their information, but because they cover a large number of topics and explain them in a way that is easy to understand and learn from.
It is also essential to understand the recycling aspect on the product life cycle, and this video is excellent in showing exactly what products are, and which ones arnt recycled. I find it important to understand just how much waste is created from design and use of products/packaging that is environmentally damaging.
The second series ‘ giving packaging a new life’ is just as informative and resourceful as the first. This series focuses more on the recycling processes of products and packaging, and it is useful to see which materials are best for recycling. This has definitely influenced my material choices for the packaging assignment. It was interesting to learn how once recycled, the original material is used for something entirely different that its original use, and also that different colours are recycled differently. Also it was interesting to learn how recycling is sorted with such a machine.
It was also interesting to learn about tetra packs, because they are so complex i did not understand how they could be recycled. It was good to see how many different processes are required to extract
Packaging is a large industry, due to the sheer mass production and manufacture at lightning fast speeds. It is therefore potentially very destructive to the environment, however with the introduction of these recycling techniques of different materials, the industry can give a little bit back to the environment as well.
Industrial designers need to be made aware of the impact that their designs have on the environment, and videos such as these will definitely open their eyes to the world of packaging, materials and recycling, and hopefully this will influenced their future material and design choices.
