Design 21: Social Design Network

I like the idea of week-long or event specific targets to get people interested and active in the idea. I think this sort of easing people in by testing feasibility, especially on the scale of something like the 2012 Olympics will be a huge step in the right direction.

Ultimately, though, we have to get manufacturers on board - perhaps through consumer pressure.

"When I see a plastic mushroom container I nearly weep," says Mrs Reid. "What could I use it for? I could use it for lots of things - like plant trays - but I have got enough. Plastic does break down but it doesn't turn back into anything useful for hundreds, possibly thousands of years."

This sort of quote seems to indicate that she has no choice but to buy mushrooms in plastic containers - packaging for stuff as quickly consumed as food really ought to come in more environmentally friendly containers.

An extremely eco-conscious friend of mine who lives in the UK was telling me that often, even when there is a choice - such as paying a few pennies extra for a biodegradable compostable plastic package in which her organic fair trade carrots come in ;p the supermarket will often go and put an absolutely non degradable metal sticker on it that doesn't come off or some such thing that essentially cancels out the entire concept with one thoughtless gesture.

Its almost as though sustainable design needs to look at the big picture holistically or the entire industrial ecosystem needs to be designed from this point of view, in order to ensure that the time, effort and expense of using a compostable plastic package is not cancelled out by one simple act.