Design Food for Thought- Making the world a better place through using everyday material and objects

Have you ever heard of the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure"? As a designer, we can take objects and materials considered to some to be garbage and no longer usable and make into a piece of art, a structure, and a useable thing again. 

Below are some unbelievable facts about how much we as Americans waste a year... take a look!

"Americans represent 5% of the world’s population, but generate 30% of the world’s garbage."

"In a lifetime, the average American will personally throw away 600 times his or her body weight, which for an average adult would leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash at the end of their lifetime."

"Of the garbage Americans throw out, half could be recycled, which is enough to fill a football stadium from top to bottom everyday."

In looking at American Waste facts, I want to emphasize the importance to recycle and reuse cardboard. Take a look at how much cardboard saves...

"Cardboard One ton of recycled cardboard saves:

•        390 kWh hours of electricity. •       46 gallons of oil. •         6.6 million Btu’s of energy. •       9 cubic yards of landfill space.

Cardboard and paper waste make up 41% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Recycling cardboard takes 24% less energy and produces 50% less sulfur dioxide than making cardboard from raw materials."

 As you can see, saving cardboard helps out in many ways. Recycling also....

 •  It saves money. •  It improves efficiency. •         It reduces energy use.

•        It reduces fuel use. •     It saves landfill space. •         It improves air quality. •   It  improves water quality. •    It reduces the rate of global warming

So what can we as designers make out of cardboard? How can we reuse and recycle this material to make something for someone else or our self? 

Here are somethings people have done with reusable/recyclable cardboard...

  To take a closer look below are the links as well as some more that are not shown. Hope this inspires you to take trash and make it a treasure!

http://www.greatinteriordesign.com/edge-cardboard-interior-in-greece/edge-cardboard-interior-in-greece/ 

http://architecturehomedesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/interior-from-cardboard.jpg

http://www.designmena.com/inspiration/pictures-cardboard-office-interiors

http://inhabitat.com/the-pupa-pavilion-is-built-entirely-from-office-waste/

http://biosarch.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cupwall-1.png?w=455&h=354

students.arch.utah.edu/courses/Arch4011/Recycling%20Facts1.pdf