W4: “Cradle to Cradle Design” – Eva

As I began reading Designing for the Circular Economy: Cradle to Cradle Design, I was once again reminded of the fundamental question we covered in class “Can we do more good, instead of focusing on doing less bad?” I found it interesting that Puma,  in order of achieving the Cradle to Cradle module, had to make adjustments not only on the micro scale but also the macro infrastructure. This chapter included a lot of questions for consideration, which made me want to look at the tags on my clothes. I realised that almost all of my clothes would be considered to be made out of technical nutrients instead of biological. I then called my grandmother to ask her about her shopping choices. She explained that her clothing is not necessarily bought with the intent of being sustainable, but living in the outskirts of Lithuania and having access to Mugės (like a pop up market ever so often) – she has the exposure to locally made biological nutrient conscious choices. She had explained how most of her winter clothes are 100% cotton, which I found interesting noting that the price she mentioned seemed very little. So than I had examples of different kind of clothing (from a VERY small sample of myself, and y grandmother), which made me look at the difference in our wardrobes. My focus was on colours, patters, and wacky designs, while she prioritised the basic need of warmth and comfort. Bottom line was that I was still paying more money for pieces which were not only very bad for the environment, but also were going to be used for less than two years (at best). I am absorbing a lot of information, and day by day am trying to impliment this knowledge into practice, because just as this chapter highlighted – we have so many choices, we choose to do nothing – and I do not want to be a part of this mass mentality anymore. 

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