Leyla Acaroglu wants to reshape the way we think about sustainability, and get rid of some of the “environmental folklore” surrounding many decisions we make regarding materials. Her TED Talk “Paper beats plastic? How to rethink environmental folklore” discusses her ideas for making the world a greener place using hard data and predictions for the future.
Acaroglu talks about environmental folklore as the gut feeling that you’ve done the right thing for the world. Picking a paper bag instead of plastic or buying a fuel efficient car are her first examples. These ideas are based on our experiences along with hearsay and the prevailing wisdom of society, but might not come from solid data.
Using lifecycle thinking Leyla looks at the base materials of a product, the manufacturing and transport methods, the product use and also what happens after the product is no longer in use. Every stage has some interaction with the environment and contributes to the overall impact of a product.
Biodegradability is examined as a material property but not necessarily an environmental benefit. The natural process for many biodegradable materials is to end up back in the natural world and then release its carbon back into the atmosphere. However, most biodegradable materials used in consumer goods end up in landfill and the carbon molecules degrade a different way. Landfills produce methane, around twenty five times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Acaroglu is a product designer at heart and her studies are geared toward building better products that treat the world as a sustainable system. Several of the ideas in her talk showcase different framework for thinking about current product with varying degrees of difficulty for implementation. Refrigerators, tea kettles, old cellphones and food storage are all examined and reimagined in this talk.