Eitan Burcat » Environment http://www.eburcat.com Feedback looping Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:55:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Please consider the environment before using this napkin http://www.eburcat.com/2008/12/please-consider-the-environment-before-using-this-napkin/ http://www.eburcat.com/2008/12/please-consider-the-environment-before-using-this-napkin/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:02:17 +0000 Eitan Burcat http://www.eburcat.com/?p=135 Disposable napkin 

 

A disposable napkin*

 

I wish napkins had this slogan written on them, with the following text on the other side:

“This napkin was once a tree, growing up in Brazil. Then it got cut down, got mixed with some toxic materials, so that it will look shiny and sell better. Then we printed on it (the text that you are reading in this very moment) – using some more toxic materials. Then it got shipped half way around the world, using some fuel. After you’ll use it, this napkin will get shipped to the nearest dumping location (using some more fuel, and polluting the air a bit more). There – it will deteriorate in the course of the next 5 years, putting all that toxic waste back into the ground. And all of this is done so that for 3 seconds you will look a bit more civilized when you eat your fettucini.”

“Please consider putting this napkin back in the stand, so that the next person sitting here will also get educated”.

Now,

I’m sure that producers of disposable dishes think that these napkins would be a bad business idea. Maybe they are right. But, these napkins can benefit us in a couple of ways:

  • They educate about “environmental footprint”.
  • Less napkins that the restaurant has to buy and manage.
  • Less toxic waste that the restaurant will produce.

I call these “guilt napkins”. Maybe another text can be used to create “educational napkins” or “good karma napkins”. Maybe these napkins shouldn’t get produced at all, and an empty “educational napkins-holder” is enough.

Just a thought.

 

Please consider sending this blog post to someone that needs it :)

 

* In the process of writing this post, no napkins were actually disposed. This photo was downloaded from istockphoto…

]]> http://www.eburcat.com/2008/12/please-consider-the-environment-before-using-this-napkin/feed/ 0 My Marcel Duchamp’s Challenge http://www.eburcat.com/2008/10/my-marcel-duchamps-challenge/ http://www.eburcat.com/2008/10/my-marcel-duchamps-challenge/#comments Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:47:25 +0000 admin http://www.eburcat.com/?p=30 Every time I piss in the toilet, I feel a great shame over the clean, fresh and tasty water that I’m using to flush my number 1. It’s a massive and collective insanity, when you pause and think about it for a moment. A giant elephant in the bathroom. About half of us on this planet, males, could piss without wasting even a single drop of water – but instead, we simply piss on everybody, and put this precious resource to a stupid use.

So, with our poor water conditions here in Israel, how come that we still don’t have some waterless johns in our homes? Awareness, Architecture, Interior Design, Engineering, and Marketing. We need all of these to solve the issue.

And here’s my challenge:

Now, that you’re aware of the situation – this is one of the greatest things that you can do to serve specifically Israel, and humanity at large: By the end of this century, make it so – that 99% of the Israelis will have a waterless-toilet-in-their-homes. Devise a name, a story, a design and an architecture – that will get us rid of this stupid water misuse. 

Anybody with me on this? Let me know. I’m thinking about starting a real competition with this :)

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