Copyright 1996

READING PASSAGE 1 
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION  
 
 
 
These are just two examples of the  
Sitting on my desk arc two ball point pens
transformation taking place in almost all areas
One seems unremarkable, just another white.
of product design, a tantalising glimpse of a  
disposable, plastic pen The second is more
sustainable future composed of objects which
curious It's a small rolled tube of brown
will be familiar, yet radically different, having
cardboard which pulls apart into a body and a
evolved, like species, to adapt to new  
lid, only the protruding plastic and brass of the
environmental conditions Consumer products,
writing tip gives its nature away It looks like
small disposable items, cleaning agents.  
something you might expect to find in a kit of
domestic appliances, white goods, TVs,  
stylish recycled paper envelopes and  
computers and cars, clothes and packaging, are
stationery But it is planned for more  
all being redesigned to reduce their  
ubiquitous usage to meet the purchasing
environmental impact There is some  
requirements of many government bodies and
superficial greening, just the latest ploy from
companies in Europe, requirements which are
the advertising and marketing division Many
increasingly based on environmental criteria
of the more reputable gree
i
n produets howe\ er
This cardboard pen is (supposedly) recyclable,
represent very large investment in research and
the black plastic, parts of the pen are from
design, and in new materials and technology 
already recycled material (fiom a shampoo
These developments are so potentially  
bottle, or a disposable razor or possibly en en
significant in the light of global environmental
another pen) It is a small example of a new
problems that government research and  
trend to design products that can be  
development programs in many countries now
disassembled and recycled Pull it apart and
have new categories of 'eco-design', 'design for
(he body and lid can be dropped into the paper
the environment' and 'life-cycle analysis'  
recycling bin  
Recently, Scientific American included  
The white pen is a manufacturer's  
'environmental design' in its list of the 12  
demonstration, a prototype Produced for a
critical new challenges for research in the  
European plastics convention, it illustrates
coming years
another approach to the production of an
'Design for the environment seeks to stir  
environmentally acceptable product The silky
engineers to think about the environmental  
feel and the flexibility of the plastic suggests
implications of a product and of its  
that this is no ordinary stationer's item, so does
manufacture during the earliest phases of  
the embossed 'green' and 'biodegradable'
design These considerations may embrace  
stamp on the barrel It is made from a plastic
a sweeping collection of issues the  
derived entirely from corn, manufactured in
environmental distress caused by obtaining  
Italy under the trade name Mater-Bi If you are
the raw materials, the toxicity of using and  
prone to chewing the end of your pen, you
discarding chemicals during production  
would find this one quite edible, perhaps even
the likelihood that the production itself can  
nutritious Mater-Bi dissolves in water and the
be refurbished, reused or recycled once the  
manufacturers claim that it leaves only 
consumer has decided to abandon it'  
harmless biodegradable organic compounds
After removing the cartridge this pen can go
back to fertilize the crops whence it came

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