How good design can keep our oceans plastic-free

The seminal book Cradle to Cradle: Re-Making the Way We Make Things opens with a powerful quote from Albert Einstein: “The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.”

This sentiment is as relevant today as it ever was. One crisis is the sheer quantity of plastic waste floating in the world’s oceans today – 5 trillion pieces according to researchers. The larger pieces are trapping dolphins, turtles and sometimes whales. Other smaller items can end up in the stomachs of fish, turtles and seabirds. It is hard to think of a more poignant example of how our way of life is pouring levels of toxicity into the natural ecosystem and damaging the planet on which we all depend. Clearly, we need a more sustainable business proposition, so we can continue producing goods and services, including materials such as plastic, in a way that is positive to the environment and human health. This requires completely new thinking.

How we design things is key to this, a fact underlined by the Cradle to Cradle authors, William McDonough and Professor Michael Braungart, in their book. In it, they suggest a new design assignment: Instead of fine-tuning the existing destructive framework, they suggest various new ways of designing things, such as products that when their useful life is over do not become useless waste. Instead, they argue, they can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil. Alongside that, human-made products can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products.

This is a very succinct description of the philosophy of cradle to cradle, which companies like like the one I work for and others have been following for many years. It puts great stress on the goal of developing healthy materials that will be positive to human health and the environment. In this context, what has happened and is still happening to our oceans is an example of bad design.

The question of design thinking is now gaining ground as a major, competitive driver for businesses success. Indeed, the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review has focused on the topic, in which its editor, Adi Ignatius, says, design clearly is moving to the C-suite. It covers many crucial areas where design can improve products and services. But one area which is missing is how new design can lead to producing goods that are “eco-effective” – a term defined by McDonough and Brangart to describe the art of designing things to be good from the start in terms of people, planet and profits.

As such, you would not knowingly design something that would end up as waste in the oceans, as is currently happening. Trying to reduce it is crucial but not the end goal. But how do we get from eco-efficiency thinking to eco-effectiveness from the start of the process of making things? How do we design in healthy material flows and closed loop systems that keep the plastic in motion in the economic system?

Fortunately, leading figures in industry, science and technology are focusing on the problem and searching for answers. The circular economy has been on the agenda at the World Economic Forum for some time, with the launch of Project MainStream, a cross-industry collaboration, organized by the Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is examining three areas: creating a global plastic packaging roadmap, deploying asset tracking in industry-specific value chains, and developing simple eco-design rules for paper products. In fact, we will be involved in these discussions at the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, including a session devoted to tackling the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.

Desso has been on the steering committee of Project MainStream since its start and participates in the project on the plastic packaging stream. It is a great example of business collaboration and innovation driving change. And it reflects the fact that we cannot look at problems like plastic waste in the oceans in isolation. At the same time, we need to drive forward innovative circular economy models that turns the potential plastic waste into value that is reused, not dumped.

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015 is taking place in Dalian, China, from 9-11 September.

Author: Roland Jonkhoff, Managing Director, Desso and Vice President, Carpet EMEA, Tarkett Group

Image: A piece of a toy doll is seen on Fundao beach in the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 30, 2015. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes