The article in the url below introduces IndexR (see also: http://www.psfk.com/2010/12/indexr-database-reducing-uncertainty-over-proper-waste-recycling.html), an innovative idea by a graduate student from the California College of the Arts. IndexR is designed to provide consumers with the information they need to maximize the amount of recycling they can do:
“… we all produce lots of refuse, but how often are we uncertain about what can, or should, be recycled? … Statistics show that, as of 2008, the typical person discards 4.5 pounds of stuff per day, 1.5 pounds of which are recycled, but what does that really mean?”
IndexR proposes to use the bar code on the products we buy. In addition to providing information to retailers about our shopping habits, IndexR creates a system where we would also receive information on how and where to recycle the products we have just bought:
“So suppose that upon checkout at Kroger (or wherever), a shopper received not just a paper receipt but a digital record tailored to the individual. Ideally all your shopping data would flow into one spot, accessible from your computer or mobile device. This could reveal perhaps surprising patterns (drinking more soda than you would have guessed?). But apart from guiding your future consumption, it would also provide information about whether what you've already bought can be recycled, and how. If a package needed to be broken into parts, for example, you'd have that information; if unused contents can be composted, you'd get those details too.”
The idea is in the early stages of development and there are barriers to implementation (primary among which is incentivizing manufacturers to participate), but IndexR effectively combines technical progress with the need to reduce resource use. Given humans’ seeming collective inability to radically alter behavior/consumption patterns, we need to hope that technical solutions can curb the most damaging excesses of life in twenty-first century developed societies.
Take care
David
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
Wasted Data
By ROB WALKER
910 words
5 December 2010
The New York Times Magazine
Late Edition - Final
20
