This is my page for the life cycle project. The product that I have chosen to investigate for this project is a leather belt.
Timeline
Step 1: A leather belt starts out as a baby cow, farmers feed the cows so that they grow up and are able to produce more meat and leather. So the cow is born, and farmers care for it, feed it food and medicine. Then once they get old enough, the farmers slaughter the cows and separate the meat and the leather. Step 2: The leather is then cleaned and separated from the fur. The farmers do whatever is needed to make the leather look good before they sell it. Then a large company comes to pick it up, most of the time the leather is not cut yet, or stained. The company has to do that themselves. Step 3: The factory washes the leather for good measure, then they take the large leather mats and stain each side to the color that they want the belt to be. Then they cute the leather into strips of different sizes for different belts. They put whatever designs on the belt that they want, put holes in one end for the sizing and put the metal piece on the other end. Then they send it to stores. Step 4: The buyer can use the belt for many purposes. Most of the time it is used to hold someones pants up. Or as a dress item when you have to dress up. But belts can also be used for discipline. Either way belts don't last forever and will wear out eventually. Step 5: Once people are done with belts, and they are worn out. They just throw them away, people don't find any reason to recycle them. But some save them and can use it for a few purposes, here are two examples of how people re used their belts.
1. Product lifestyle means the products journey from when it was made, grown, raised, etc. To when it becomes waste and is disposed of. 2. So that they know how long a product will last, where its from, and how old it is. Allowing them to calculate a price from it. 3. I would make the holes sturdier, often time people have to get a new belt because the holes were ripping. I'd also make it so that the belts tightened by themselves to snugly fit the wearer. Which would allow them to last longer, and be more practical to use. 4. I think belts will evolve over time rather than become obsolete. Belts are always needed in this world and always will be needed, no matter the purpose. 5. A trade off is giving up one thing, in return for another thing. 6. Yes, the farmers had to trade land off for space to graze the cows. Then the companies had to trade money in order to get the leather, stain, and metal pieces to make the belt. 7. It is important to recycle so that we waste as little resources as possible, and put as little trash into nature, and emissions in the atmosphere as possible. 8. Product designers can create a product that is made in such a way, or out of a material, that can easily be recycled. 9. Society plays the biggest role in recycling because in the end its their choice whether or not to recycle. Someone can buy tons of things that are made to be recycled, but if they choose not to recycle it, it doesn't really matter. 10. In order to help you can buy reusable containers, metal water bottles, use less plastics and if you do, put them in the recycling every week.