Design 21: Social Design Network

Dan, I like your Dr Seussian rhyme (not alliteration!) and Tyvekian dream. I too think it's essential to look beyond a Band-Aid solution ("use bio-plastic!") and consider even its repurcussions. Scary indeed. Most system-wide problems - broad, deep, persistent - need to be considered as whole journeys, from raw material acquisition, in the case of a product, through to "death." Keeping a bag made of Tyvek in a sustained cycle of use over time is an ideal scenario, and utterly possible. How might we motivate human behavioral change in this regard...so that bags (regardless of material) are kept, re-used and never thrown away?

I live in France, and in my region plastic bags have become "illegal". Stores provide heavy-duty re-usable bags for purchase (at a minimal cost - and the stores replace them free of charge) or bags which are biodegradable. Everyone keeps bags in their (tiny, fuel efficient) cars and carries them into the store when they go to shop. The change was painless - I never heard anyone complain. And like many changes-for-the-better, everyone wonders why we didn't do it sooner... Indeed, the reusable bags are sturdy, carry more, never break - and when the bags are full the handles don't cut into your hands like the plastic ones do ... It seems all one needed to do to "motivate human behavioral change" in this case was to take the plastic bags away!

A colleague and I developed some crisp white 'portable offices' in Tyvek 5-7 years ago.

These zippered, multipocketed folders were sized like laptops, and worked great. Durable too - mine's been on virtually every trip I've taken to meet with Green Map project leaders around the world (see GreenMap.org) since then. We also developed some larger and smaller bags, and collected samples of totes bags made of Tyvek (mostly made as premiums with beach themes), so previous use as bags is not unprecedented.

The Tyvek we chose was 25% recycled material, machine washable, easy to print, strong. I'd guess Dupont would see the value of developing a takeback system, too - might even be possible to loop in the Post Offices in the US, as they give out millions of them a year as express mailers, and there's no place for them in the municipal reycling programs. Maybe they could go for a 100% recycled sheet.

I'm not sure how well known Tyvek is in other countries, fx in Japan, it's not. I'd be very interested in seeing it go further, as it's such a compact, lightweight and tough sheet.

Ironically the Crisp portable office folders my partner, Miss Ellen Ruth Levy, and I made were for our entry in Felissimo's product design competition! Perhaps its time has come.

Could Dupont would make it easier for designers to get the sheet stock for R&D, stirring innovation and answering the call, as Al puts it? This could even be a terrrific competition for this website to sponsor!

Having just responded directly to Micki's post, I found your response interesting. Over on Inhabitat we are covering a great deal of news and information on Plastic Bag Banning and design alternatives for this problematic product.

London's Photographic Gallery are offering a social commentary on the issue of waste and disposal of the plastic bag, which you may find appropriate; you can see the archive here.

As plastic bag bans are spreading across the globe, we ask what materials will be (and can be) used to replace them? I do wonder what consumer questions and market research has been carried out, to evaluate whether shoppers are happily going to take a collection of eco-friendly bags with them on every regular shopping trip, just incase they need them? To a certain extent this has surely got to be a style orientated future, in order to change human behaviour and attitudes.

Anya Hindmarch offers one alternative with her I Am Not A Plastic Bag designs, which hit the headlines in June.

An ever-evolving conversation.