Sustainability in Visual Culture and Communication

In the present world of 2020, the term ‘sustainability’ has become a bit of a buzz word that everyone seems to be obsessed with. “Be it corporate or consumer, there is no denying the significant shift in attitude towards saving the planet” (Anderson 2019) But with this mass market and social buzz around sustainability and caring for the planet, we are still not doing enough. Making me question, what is sustainability? “Sustainability means enduring into the long-term future” making sure that systems and parts of life can function time and time again from things we already have and use. The term dates back to 1713 when the German equivalent appeared in a book by Hans Carl Von Carlowitz who realised that his business, that relied on timber, could cause enough deforestation to collapse the local economy. He described that through sustainable management of this renewable source; forests could supply his business with timber indefinitely. (Margaret Robertson 2017).

Our collective vision and knowledge of the world has shifted along with the shift in cultural planet saving “years ago our world appeared to be the size of whatever culture we lived within and felt as if it were stable and unchangeable. Our world is now understood to be planetary in scale and to be changing very fast” (Margaret Robertson 2017) meaning that the bigger understanding we (as a society) have of the world, the more we can do in our efforts to slow down climate change. Efforts to educate the population have been made by numerous well-known influencers one of the most common influencers being David Attenborough and his television programme Blue Planet II. In the final episode, the prolific narrator urged viewers to address their plastic consumption and think about how they as individuals can help the environment and keep deadly plastic away from the ocean. Many have now coined the action taken by the people to invest in a healthier planet, the ‘Blue Planet’ or ‘Attenborough effect’ which has led to a landscape in which plastic is viewed a lot less positively than it was in the recent past. “Nearly nine in 10 people (88%) who saw that episode of BBC’s Blue Planet II about the effect of plastics on our oceans have changed their behaviour since. Sixty percent of us now choose a refillable water bottle and coffee cup more than we did, and Waitrose has seen an 800% increase in questions about plastics from customers.” (Waitrose & Partners 2018)

In the current climate of sustainability and green washing, people know that plastic is bad and wrong for the environment but are the alternatives any better? Plastic is made from human made chains of polymer material, derived from natural gas and drilled oil (Gourmelon, 2015). Around 4 per cent of world oil and gas production, a non-renewable resource, is used as feedstock for plastics and a further 3 –4% is expended to provide energy for their manufacture (Hopewell, 2009). It was first invented in the 1860s but was developed for industry in the 1920s and surged in popularity in the 1940s. it soon became, and still is, one of the largest and fastest developing industries worth over $1.2 trillion to date (The Business Research Company, 2020). On average, the production of plastic has increased each year by 8.7% from 1950, with 300million tonnes being produced in 2012. (Gourmelon, 2015).

Glass is a material that most people use every day and is a massive disposable product within the zero-waste, sustainable movement. It is well known that people seem to think that buying new glass, is better than buying new plastic, but how much of that is true? And what effect does glass have on the environment?

In terms of transportation, glass causes problems due to it being heavier and more delicate than plastic. This means that more materials are involved to protect the item from breaking, and less of it can be transported at one time, increasing the amount of truck loads and journeys therefore, consequently releasing more Co2 emissions than the transformation of plastic. (Hopewell, 2009)

In terms of production, glass is made from a type of sand called silica extracted from riverbeds or seabed’s faster than the ecosystems are able to replace it causing an increase in flooding in some areas and disruption in food chains and ecosystems. Plastic is made from Soda ash and limestone are other raw materials used in the production of glass, which can often be mined (Kellogg, 2019) causing a lot of environmental issues due to its by-products being buried back into the eco systems contaminating the ground and the surrounding environment with harmful, toxic chemicals. (Johansen, 2020). The ingredients are extracted, then melted down in a giant furnace that burns at around 1500 degrees Celsius using a massive amount of energy. This energy is usually sourced from fossil fuels such as coal and oil. (Kellogg, 2019) To put out a furnace, and then turn it on again, takes more energy than just running it all the time so furnaces usually run 24/7 for about 15-18 years before it has to be taken down and a new one has to be built. As a result, the industry is always 20 years behind on new sustainable technology.

From a Zero waste perspective, and in a bid to keep reusing materials into a circular economy, glass is deemed more favourable to plastic due to the fact it has higher value as a disposable item if it were to be sold in a second hand shop and can be used multiple times to store new foods in a domestic setting whilst flimsy common plastic usually isn’t. Not only that but plastic can only be recycled 4-6 times and each time the material goes through the process, new raw materials are added, and the quality of the plastic is reduced. (Our Auckland, 2016) Plastic in landfill can also emit dangerous chemicals to the surrounding environment and can take 450 years to decompose (although microplastic particles will always pollute the world) whilst glass can take 1 million years leaving little to no residue. If 50% of the worlds glass was constantly recycled, it would remove “2.2 million metric tonnes of Co2 from the environment - [the equivalent of] 400,000 cars every year." - Kellogg, 2019. Unfortunately only 76% (Morris, 2019) of waste glass in Europe is recycled and 30 million metric tonnes (FEVE, 2019) of glass are disposed of every year in relation to plastic’s 42% (2017) with very little change to date, recycle rate with 3.3 million metric tonnes disposed of (Sönnichsen,2018). Aluminium is the second contender used as an alternative to plastic. It’s used primarily in construction, like the construction of cars, planes, trains and bicycles, but we also use a lot of aluminium in our households, a lot of electronic devices have aluminium in them, but we also use the material as a single use and disposable product like aluminium foil and drinks containers." in 2012, an average European citizen uses 22kg of aluminium every single year (Sönnichsen,2018).

Aluminium was first produced in 1850 and is not actually a material that naturally occurs in the earth. It is stored in the earth’s crust (about 80% of the earth’s crust is made from aluminium silicate) but extra minerals are required to activate the aluminium. Like Bauxite. Bauxite is mined primarily in China and Australia causing major biodiversity issues. The extracted minerals are processed into alumina trough a process called refining (European Aluminium Association, 2014). Refining separates the desired material aluminium hydroxide, from the Bauxite toxic residue commonly named ‘Red Mud’ that is often deposited back into the environment disrupting ecosystems, poisoning wildlife and nearby water systems. Once that has been refined, the aluminium has to be separated from the alumina via a process called smelting (Lanier-Christensen, 2015.) which is known to release impurities such as lead and arsenic into the air in the form of smokestacks causing acid rain and posing a major health risk to both humans and animals. (GreenSpec, unknown)

The great thing about aluminium is that, like glass, it is infinitely recyclable. It does not loose durability with the amount it is recycled. "Compared to virgin aluminium from raw bauxite, recycling old aluminium consumes just 5% of the energy and releases a mere 5% of the greenhouse gasses" – Leigh, 2010. The sad thing is that not every piece of aluminium is recycled. In Europe 2017 74.5% (Metal Packaging Europe, 2017) of Europe’s 9,575 thousand metric tonnes produced that year (World Aluminium, 2020) which hasn’t changed noticeably to this day. In comparison to plastic’s 42% recycle rate (2017) and glass’ 76% (2019), aluminium is up there with glass on the material to choose over plastic in terms of sustainability.

Another material that is rising in the world of sustainability is paper. Paper is made of dried and compressed plant fibres found usually in forest trees, but it can be made from lots of other plants such as bamboo or hemp which is a rising fashion within the sustainability industry. To make different types of paper aesthetics, the plant fibres are mixed with other materials like clay and plastic to create magazines and milk cartons which cant always be recycled. (Woodford, 2020)

A lot of trees go into the production of paper and the downside to that is deforestation. Deforestation is responsible for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions (Matthews, 2016) since trees transfer co2 into oxygen and that’s usually hard to do when all of the trees have been chopped down. Deforestation is not only connected to greenhouse gasses. It's important when taking biodiversity, loss of habitat and monocultures into account. It can take 24 trees to make 1 tonne of office paper and paper production contributes to 10% of the world’s deforestation. (Sustainable Choice, 2016)

The production of paper also uses a lot of water and a lot of energy which has a massive impact on the environment and we also must consider water pollution from chemical dyes and bleachers used to colour the paper (Sustainable Choice, 2016). The demand for cardboard as food packaging has made it the single largest waste product by weight in our rubbish and it is estimated that 24 million tonnes of cardboard are discarded every year (Peters, 2018).

We use a lot of carboard and paper every single day worldwide we produce 419.7 million metric tonnes of paper in 2017 (Garside, 2019) every year. But there are items of paper that we use every day that aren't even recyclable like toilet paper and receipts (Sukalich, 2016). Receipts waste 1 billion gallons of water every year and to make them uses over 10 million trees, to supply them we use over 250 million gallons of oil and overall, they make up for 1.5 million pounds of waste. Receipts are not made from 100% recyclable paper and is lined with plastic so it cannot be recycled or composted. It's also lined with BPA which is a hormone disruptor harmful to humans and found in aluminium cans. One of the reasons why receipts are so wasteful is because in a lot of countries it is mandatory for shops to print receipts after purchasing something. On average 380 trees are required to supply an average person a lifetime of toilet roll. It takes about 20 years to a tree to grow big enough for paper production and we flush thousands of them down the toilet (Matthews, 2016)

Luckily, a lot of paper is recycled, about 73% in Europe. Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves 17 trees, 7000 gallons of waste, 463 gallons of oil and 3 cubic yards of landfill space (Sukalich, 2016). We now use recycled paper as a go to material more than virgin trees and wood pulp which is a step in the right direction.

When recycling paper, it is sorted into grades. These grades will determine how easy it is to recycle and the grade is determined by the quality of the raw material - the paper. Newspaper has a very low grading and cannot always be recycled into new glossy white paper. The reason for that is, the paper we use for newspapers has already been recycled and every time we recycle paper we shorten the fibres used to make the paper stick together and lower the grade, which is why virgin office paper is a higher grade and it’s really important that we recycle it. When paper has been recycled around 5-7 times, the fibres are so short that it can no longer be recycled, and we must add new paper and raw materials into the mix. Lower grade paper does not always end up as a waste product when it cannot be recycled anymore but at some point will become unrecognisable as a recycled product because only a small percent of it is actually recycled and new parts are added. (Sukalich, 2016). Paper is the only form of plastic alternative that I have researched that doesn’t revert back to its original form and quality of life through the recycling process and like plastic, only has a short lifespan eventually ending up in landfill and producing methane as it decomposes and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

The truth is that no one material can replace plastic, and until we have a 100% recycle rate, the materials we choose to use day in and day out, aren’t likely to change and the world will continue to be polluted with plastic and alternative byproducts. Some companies are taking a step in the right direction and are removing the plastic film packaging from their baked beans multi packs, and whilst this is good, the same company also uses raw aluminium in their tins. Everyone wants to be sustainable these days and whilst I think it’s a great step in the right direction, the initiative of the big suppliers and producers aren’t very commendable, and the consciousness of consumers is even worse. From all of the plastic alternative materials I have researched into, I have come to the conclusion that purchasing recycled glass and aluminium products locally is the way forward. This way, transportation will be decreased therefore decreasing Co2 emissions and the carbon footprint of the items. Small businesses will be supported and the chances of them reusing their containers is very high and will contribute to a better part of the environment and less packaging will be involved as a rule. And by contributing to a more circular economy, we are reusing and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

Within my practical work and day to day life, I have been able to minimise my paper consumption by completing all sketchbook work digitally and only completing hand drawn sketches when it is absolutely necessary for the module. I have also asked the teachers of my paper-based modules not to print any worksheets out for me. Instead, I scan a copy of the document(s) over to myself via email. In terms of model making, I always stay away from unrecyclable foamboard and upcycle cereal or delivery boxes making sure in construction that I don’t use any glue and either pin the model together, use recyclable tape and/or stitching with spare cotton I have in the house.

Within projects, I’m always making sure that my designs are eco-friendly. I always try to include as much second hand furniture and reclaimed materials into my space as possible and make sure that all building materials are kind to the environment. For example, my last project, we had to design a house from scratch. Including second hand features and reclaimed pieces wasn’t hard here, but I found finding a building material that was suitable for the local surroundings and for the environment especially hard. I decided to use a material called Cob which although very old, stands the test of time, involves very few materials, has a very small carbon footprint, is fireproof, keeps the heat in during the winter and out during the summer. With this design, I added lots of reclaimed glass panels and even glass bottles to increase light availability whilst also maintaining privacy in a very overlooked spot. Whilst I care about the planet massively, I also care about design and having beautiful interiors so making sure that both are at the forefront of my practical work is essential.

References

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