There is No Such Thing as Waste

There is no such thing as waste. After doing all the readings for the week and after interacting with my blog buddies, the main concept that I learned this week is that there is no such thing as waste, there is no end. The chapter “Waste Equals Food” discussed how everything should be designed with the idea that it will be reused or recycled when it’s first consumer usage has expired. It should be designed so that it will give back to the environment instead of harming it as waste or landfill. If every product designed was designed with the intentions of infinite uses, then waste would cease to exist. There would never be anything to discard, the products would either break down and serve as food to the environment or the other option would be to upcycle the product. There is no end, and there is no such thing as waste.

Our ecosystem has been designed to grow, collapse, reassemble and renew itself. It is a masterpiece. Humans are ruining this intricate creation with our waste. The environment is able to live indefinitely because of the cradle-to-cradle concept. Right now most things are living cradle-to-grave because we are living in the “throwaway” norm. After we use a product, we have come to the conclusion that we will just throw it away and buy a new one to replace it. But what I found out this week, is that almost everything can be reused or recycled, maybe not the entire piece but definitely parts. For example, when a family has decided to buy a new television, they usually get rid of it. Well usually they get rid of it because they just want the new one, they want the new thing and many of the parts inside that could last forever go to waste. Somehow we need to get out of the “throwaway” norm. We need to get in the mindset that there is no such thing as waste, waste equals food, cradle to cradle.


As a consumer, I now will be more cautious of my waste but as a designer, what is the next step?

Because our ecosystem is so flawless, why would we not try to mimic it in the textile world? In Thorpe’s Designer Atlas, it discusses the concept of biomimicry which involves taking inspiration from nature to solve design problems. If we could get in the sustainable mindset of waste equals food, just like the environment we could solve the problem. We must mimic our ecosystem. But how do we do this? This is what I seek to find...

Mimicking our intrinsic ecosystem could be the solution to our problem. As designers we must adopt this concept in order to make steps towards a sustainable world. If everything was created with the ability to grow, collapse, reassemble and renew itself, there would be no such thing as waste.