Video Review

Giving packaging a new life

Being born in a country that lacks awareness of recycling, it's very interesting to see different recycling cycles in the world.

Who knew that different materials could be recycled over and over again? Paper is a very good example of this. Did you know that new paper itself contains recycled paper? Toilet paper/tissues is about 60% recycled. Cardboard boxes are also made of recycled paper. And at the end of use, it can be recycled again.

I've always thought that tetrapacks are thick cardboards, but discovered that it's not as simple as that. Tetrapacks contains aluminium and polypropylene mixed with premium recycled papers. What's surprising is the capability of it to be recycled with the contained materials.

Plastic has always been advertised as a bad material for the environment. But further developments in technology allows degradable plastics to be created and in turn, more and more plastic are being recycled each day. The video shows how polystyrene is melted to create new bottles, but it may lose some of its physical properties.

Glass bottles uses less energy than producing metals and plastics and it can be recycled endlessly. It's interesting to see that molten glass is made from combining natural ingredients. However, recycling glass seems to be a tedious process.

This video gives a good insight of how designers should think about their material choice. The significance of recycling might affect the way a designer think. It could be more cost efficiency or the material may improve the design with its properties. It is also important for designers to think about the environment impact of their materials. Understanding the importance of sustainability could maximizes the product life cycle, thus reducing garbage in the landfill.