Urghhh today I am so frustrated, my ignorance levels are higher than I first realised. My husband who has and always will have a superior intelligence level to me seems to be aware of every discovery I make in terms of my journey to understanding about ‘global crisis’, overpopulation and forming a sustainable future for art and design.

Whether I be excited or heart broken by a discovery, he shrugs and looks at me as if to say, “you don’t already know that?”  -  DUHHH! Obviously not, with the mountain of information I have to read daily on an array of topics and the basic life skills I have to pass on to my children I don’t actually get the luxury of thumbing through a paper each day. I rarely watch TV too.

I didn’t know that a lot of our so called ‘recycled’ items get flown across to China or India to be taken care of. Only they are taken to remote parts where no one is monitoring the process and there are people sat on the floor with a hammer cracking open old TV’s with their hands, removing the lead, absorbing the harmful chemicals and then burning the left over crud. If I read the information dished out by my local council, they tell me that we’ve done well this year, we’ve recycled xxx amount of waste and that’s higher than last year. My local dump recycles 80% of what is taken there. So what the heck does that mean then?

Pause for thought, this fantastic short movie explains the process in a bit more detail.  The story of electronics….

GUILTY as hell!  I love gadgets just as much as the next person, but I will so think carefully before I buy in the future.  I’ve had my iphone for over a year and a half and it’s still going good, It serves as my music centre, phone, email , newspaper, tv catch up, diary and much more.  If there is one gadget that I would not be without this is it. I haven’t bought a CD in over 2 years but I have bought and downloaded a ton of albums via my phone, so there alone I have eradicated a small percentage of the items I would normally have purchased..namely the physical cds.  If I can work on this way of thinking I am sure I can do better.

I’ll also be looking a lot harder at who I purchase from in the future, now I know some of the right questions to ask.

So I go from TV’s and electrical gadgets to furniture, art and home accessories.  We all see them, hear about them and often look for them…‘Made from sustainable materials’, ‘made from 100% recycled materials’, ‘eco friendly’, ‘green products’ all the eCo and environmentally friendly, guilt free shopping buzz words. They all mean more or less the same thing; whatever they are representing is supposedly less harmful to our planet than their rival products on the market.

I’ve done it myself many a time, if I’m feeling a bit flush I’ll buy the more expensive eCo detergent over the cheaper non brand one in a bid to do my little something for the planet. I feel a wave of Mother Theresa wash over me as I stand in the check out, smug that I’ve done a little something today. I have absolutely no idea if the product that I am buying is actually any better than the unbranded one, it says it on the label, therefore it must be true….but we all know this could be a load of bull and a disclaimer could be released in 6 months time removing it from the shelves….anyone remember Sunny Delight? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3257820.stm But in that consumerist moment I get sucked in and I bit hard on the carrot….not until I get home is it that I think, oh get a grip woman!

My kids aged 4 and 6 ask if they can have a comic this week as they have been good, I pause for a moment and say “sure why not”, they always choose the comic with the cheap plastic toy on the front that will keep them quiet for half an hour and end up broken and in the bin later that day. For the price of both comics I could easily buy them a game or jigsaw that would keep them quiet and if treated with respect could last for years to come. Its laziness and unfortunately I am just a standard example of many people of my generation. I’m not trying to guilt trip anyone, I’m just making the point, again, that this is not responsible behaviour and the only reason why there is a market for these products is because I am the sort of person that buys them and asks no questions.

All change. It has to change, what’s more it’s actually easy to change when you make a conscious decision too. If you move the bin in your kitchen it will really annoy you for a day, by day two you will probably get used to it by the end of the week you will probably have forgotten that you ever moved it.

So let’s start with the meaning of sustained…………

Sustained, the verb meaning to keep in existence, maintain. To supply with necessities or nourishment; to provide for. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop. To support the spirits, vitality; or resolution of; encourage. To bear up under, withstand.  To keep up.

Then we have the adjective, sustainable which in an economics sense mean capable of being sustained. Then we have the meaning in an economic development and energy sources sense: capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage, sustainable development.

In my own mind the way forward seems clear to me as I am sure it is many others, we must act now to sustain the present world, preserve and be innovative with what we already have and what is already available.   For the growing and future population we must develop and design houses, environments and items in a way that they can be easily maintained in the future. They must be substantially lower in terms of harm to our planet, sourced and made as close to home as possible. The materials used should be as organic and natural as possible and whatever we take from the planet we should replenish and plan for future material harvesting.  When we purchase furniture it should be so that it lasts a life time, it should be built to last, as should our homes and really so should most things unless they are biodegradable. This is the plan, now my journey will be to see how easy this is to do and where compromises can and should be made.