Twin Cities based students taking the MASD Packaging Sustainability class this semester got a chance to tour the Eureka Recycling facility in Minneapolis with instructor Wendy Jedlička as part of the class assignment “What a Dump: An Exploration of Materials Recovery.” For the Packaging Sustainability class, students from all over the US and this semester also Australia, Guatemala, and Panama, work on a semester-long repositioning project, taking the opportunity to look at all aspects of packaging as they investigate how to make their chosen product’s packaging better. As part of this effort, all students in the course go on a tour of a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in their local area. For the tour, they’re asked to keep two ideas in mind… What did you learn on your recycling tour that would be useful for your Packaging project? MASD Packaging course student Kerstie Larson had these takeaways… The end product isn’t necessarily a ‘perfect’ product. Resulting cubes [bales] of separated products still have some bits and pieces of other materials in them like labels or caps. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s as close as they can get with the single-stream recycling system they’re working with. Area recyclers choose a single-stream system because it’s worth the increase in participation. And participation matters the most. Cleaning out your recycling isn’t totally necessary, it’s more of a ‘nice to have’ for the facility. I got the impression that if the daunting task of cleaning a container out would deter you from putting it in the recycling bin, then it’s not necessary. Again, participation over perfection. MASD Packaging course student Ophelie Echelard toured Eureka last fall, and also visited the Ramsey & Washington Recycling & Energy in the summer of 2022. “Visiting these two facilities showed me the importance of format when choosing a material. Paper is usually flat, or flattenable be sorted correctly by the conveyor belts. Leaving caps on [for plastic bottles] is crucial, otherwise the material just never makes it through the recovery system. The entire ground of the Eureka facility was covered in tiny pieces of plastic, from caps to forks, and odd pieces of paper, like coffee cup sleeves or pulp drink holders. People throw the weirdest stuff in the curbside bin. On the tour there was a VHS tape slowly unraveling all along the line, closed takeout containers still full of food, so many shoes, so so many shoes, random plastic films and bags, and way too many garden hoses. I saw AI in both facilities, one sorting through plastic types (at Eureka, separating LDPE bottles) and the other separating out compost bags — the tech is still very expensive and rather slow. These highly automated facilities have nonetheless created employment opportunities for the area because many humans are still needed to sort through the materials.” How did your recycler reply to this question, "What would you, as a recycler, like designers to know?" MASD Packaging course student Veronica Mangio noted for this question that designers need to consider “the end-of-life aspect and the system that goes behind the collection, sorting, and selling of recycled material. Recycling revolves around collection, sorting, and selling to organizations that turn the recycled material into products. Those are 3 parts we can consider when we design.” Kerstie Larson adds ”… designers [need] to keep pushing companies to design the packaging for recyclability and continue to encourage an open conversation between the facilities dealing with a product’s end of life and the company that produces it. For us as designers [we need] to step into the role of advocating for companies to take responsibility for the waste [our clients] are creating and making money off of.” MASD student Solomon Sanchez tagging along with the Packaging class, taking a cue from biomimicry noted “As I wandered through the recycling plant, a thought struck me: it was reminiscent of our body's intricate digestive process. Much like how enzymes break down food into its chemical constituents in our digestive tract, the machines there were engaged in a process of extraction. It's fascinating how nature's mechanisms are evident in a lot of industrial processes.” For more information about Eureka Recycling or to see about joining one of their public tours visit: https://eurekarecycling.org To explore aspects of Biomimicry and how it can apply to your work visit: https://asknature.org Categories Systems Thinnking Tags systems thinking