Plastic has changed the history of humanity: almost all products have a percentage of this material in their components. The success of plastic takes just over a century and a half, and has exacerbated the destruction of planet Earth in record time.
At the beginning of the industry the plastic represented development and quality of life: at least 90% of the world population was in extreme poverty, today it is only 20%, however, as the decades passed, it multiplied by seven times the global population and has damaged the Earth so deeply that it will take thousands of years to recover.
A large part of the responsibility falls on the mass production industries, given that the amount of resources used in production is uncountable, and due to mismanagement of the available elements. It should be added that the deficiency in the design of thousands of products and packaging has multiplied the damage that could make a single product, an example of this are plastic bottles, whose labels and covers are also made of the same material.
In recent years, design has taken on a more important aspect at the time of talking of sustainability. A good product design that contains plastic, not only worries about reducing the components of this material in the article, but to reduce all natural resources used in production, such as water, fossil fuels and metals as well as protect the integrity of all the employees.
Sustainable Design aims to be a basic tool for current manufacturing, optimizing the way in which products are made, from the manufacturing process, materials, useful life and material recycling. An adequate design of the things that make up our environment is essential for a better quality of life, however, that is no longer enough; The environmental problems of today affect all living beings and our duty as inhabitants of the planet is to participate actively for this and our fellow human beings.
Nevertheless, sustainable design faces the difficulty of entering to this great structure of mass consumption, whether for social, production or economic reasons. The requirement will always be the same: produce at the lowest possible cost and satisfy all needs. In these circumstances it is important to exercise our power as consumers, that is, to be part of the chain of consumption we must understand the importance of this issue, and project it to our lifestyle, we must look for friendly spaces for nature and with the sustainable development, make this model our necessity, so that it is not ignored by the producers.
I refer to a previous article: «The Six millions of Adidas«, where the integral performance of design in a product is not only more sustainable, but much more profitable.
Finally, the role that corresponds to the design and creative processes is to detect the shortcomings and adapt them to the new demands of the present, compensating for the secondary effects that these generate, fighting against the problems caused by the growth itself.
Soñador y constructor de mundos.