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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