drawing of a pencil

A small handbook about the big idea of ecological sustainability for emerging designers.

This handbook is about ecological sustainability, meaning minimising the material and energy waste of graphic design. It's a jumping off point for you to do further research on materials and practices you find interesting. It includes basic principles, guidance on material lifetimes and links to additional resources. The world is ever-changing so the information on the site will be updated as more research is completed.

a lightbulb, pencil, and recycling symbol

“When you see whole systems, you start noticing where things come from and where they go. You begin to see that there is no ‘away’ to throw things to.”
– Meadows, 1982, p. 102

the globe

People, Profit, Planet

Sustainable design practices work towards a healthier planet by considering social interaction, economic impact, and/or material choice. Sustainable design practices might affect:

  • people, the information they share, the actions they take, and the ways they interact with each other.
  • profits, by using design to amplify or minimise corporations, and by directing money towards regenerative materials/services/products.
  • the planet, by considering product life-cycles, material and energy usage, and the material actions of practice.
the recycling symbol

Core Strategies

  • Re-think what you create; rejecting or altering briefs, changing your design process, designing for longevity, and life-cycle planning for products.
  • Reduce the materials and energy used; minimising ink coverage and thickness of materials used, reducing the amount of collateral created, creating Product Packaging Combinations, and reducing file sizes and server usage.
  • Reuse/Re-purpose designs and products; modular brand systems, packaging which can be disassembled and refilled or altered,  and the re-purposing of assets or code within the design process.
  • Recycle as much as possible; using recycled instead of virgin materials in products and the workplace, and designing for recycling by using easily recyclable materials, single-material products, and designing for disassembly.
a lightbulb

Energy and Waste Streams

Many of the approaches for reducing material waste will also reduce energy waste. Specific tactics for reducing energy use range from the organisational level (installing solar panels, purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, and supporting net-zero energy options) to the individual (completely shutting down electronics when work is complete, reducing file-size online, using green hosting services, and deleting unused files).

Material recycling mostly happens through either manufacturing waste or post-consumer waste. Recycling is, broadly, much more efficient with low-dye single-material products. A computer is much more difficult to recycle, although it might be re-purposed, while a clear glass jar is fairly simple. One role that graphic design plays in this process is making sure that users clearly understand where or how to reuse and recycle.

a circle

Life-Cycles

Ecological sustainability in graphic design is the reduction of material and energy waste in design. One way of doing this is to change the life-cycle of a design; altering where it begins and where it ends. Closed loop circular economies (where nothing ever goes to waste) are the goal for many designers and a hot topic in product design, but probably out of your reach right now. As an emerging designer you likely can’t perform Life Cycle Assessments on all the projects you work on, but you can consider where materials and energy come from and where they go.

Sustainable graphic design does not necessarily mean designing for a short lifespan. Designing for longevity might mean that there isn’t a need to re-design, re-code, or re-manufacture products. Think of a high quality book, a resourceful website, or packaging that can be refilled over and over.

Materials and the Internet in Graphic Design

A printable zine/poster version of this information is coming soon.

General Notes

There are three rules to follow to reduce material and energy waste across all physical products as a graphic designer:

  • Question if the object needs to be made at all.
  • Reduce the variety and amount of materials used (single material products are easier to collect and recycle properly).
  • Ensure that disposal instructions are clear and easy to follow.

Materials like glass and plastic have to be colour sorted for recycling. Colours other than the main categories – amber, green, and clear for glass (Allan, 2019; CSIRO, 2021) and clear, white, blue, and green for many plastics (Miller & Aldridge, 2012) – are less likely to be recycled because they don't fit existing systems. Below is more specific guidance for different materials. You’ll find that almost no material has a clear-cut lifetime, or distinct and finite measurable effect. This is because the world is very complex and many different factors affect any given choice and material We’re not aiming for ‘perfect’ here, we’re aiming for better. At the end of this page there is a list of references if you want to learn more.

a star

Wood Based Paper

  • Manufacturing new paper from 100% recycled wood-based paper is more energy and water efficient than manufacturing paper from 100% virgin wood over a lifetime assessment (Bajpai, 2010; Gemechu et al., 2013).
  • The processing of recycled paper produces sludge, a mixture of ink, unusable elements, too-processed fibres, and glue (Bajpai, 2015, p. 19). Sludge can be reintroduced into the paper making process or else incinerated (Holik, 2006, p. 144). It is often sent to landfill, but may also be used in construction materials, in composting for soil improvement, and dried out to be burned for fuel (Bajpai, 2010).
  • Pre-consumer waste collection (such as offcuts or discards from a printer) is a cleaner waste stream than post-consumer waste (what you might recycle at home) as it’s less likely to be mixed with other waste streams. This is true of all materials.
  • Paper can last for hundreds of years, but biodegrades fairly fast in an ideal environment. Torn into strips and put into compost, it can completely biodegrade within a month (Ahmed et al., 2018).
  • Previously recycled paper takes a shorter amount of time to biodegrade, while thicker paper, glued paper, and paper that has been printed on takes longer (Ahmed et al., 2018).
  • Paper cannot be recycled indefinitely; eventually the fibres become too short (Kirwan, 2013). Paper can last almost entirely intact in landfill for well over 18 years, so paper should be either composted or recycled (Rathje & Murphy, 1992; Ximenes, 2010).
  • Paper, as long as it’s captured and sent to the correct facilities, is easy to recycle. It’s so easy that you can repeat the same processes at home.
  • The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a major trusted organisation which certifies and manages paper production to avoid pollution and deforestation. Read this explainer of their labels and certifications to learn more: https://www.datocms-assets.com/132613/1727989739-forest-stewardship-council-fsc-label-briefer.pdf
  • Paper is often bleached using chlorine to get that crisp white appearance. Using Total Chlorine Free paper is ecologically preferred to Elemental Chlorine Free (which still uses chlorine dioxide), but both are preferable to processes which use chlorine bleach (Bajpai, 2010).
  • Many different kinds of polymers can be used to coat paper and give it 'barrier qualities', making it food- or medical- grade. Many of these are petroleum based, and many are not biodegradable. The best option for coating paper seems to be PLA, a bio-based biodegradable plastic (Kunam et al., 2024). Common available paper coatings including PE and PLA cannot be recycled, although newer coatings such as CPLA- and CPBAT-coating might be able to be recycled (Hamdani et al., 2025).
  • To most people, all paper coatings will look virtually identical so consumer messaging about product disposal must be clear. Can users recycle the product? Should they put it in home compost or council-collection compost?

To reduce waste

  • Use as little material as possible.
  • Use FSC-certified paper.
  • Use recycled paper.
  • Avoid non-necessary coatings.
  • Minimise paper waste by fitting prints to the page size and reducing test printing.
  • Preferentially use Total Chlorine Free paper, or even Elemental Chlorine Free paper if possible. Ensure that end-of-life disposal is clear for users.

Further information

Plastics

  • Plastics 'Plastic' is a catch-all term for long-chain polymeric materials; there are a huge amount of different plastics out there and they all have varied compositions and lifespans (Zhang et al., 2021).
  • Plastics are either thermoplastics, meaning they can be reheated and reshaped repeatedly, or thermoset plastics, meaning that once they've been heated and cooled the first time they can't be reheated and reshaped again (Plastics Europe, 2019).
  • "The 2022–23 recovery rate for plastics [in Australia] was about 12.5%, almost identical to the 12.6% estimated for 2016–17. About 1% of this recovery was for its energy value. The rest was recycled. Landfills received an estimated 87.5% of plastics waste" (Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, 2024, p. 46).
  • Plastics degradation in the environment is mainly started by photo-degradation (exposure to ultra violet light). Degradation can also happen through oxo-degradation (when additives lead to accelerated degradation from exposure to ultraviolet light and heat), or biodegradation (when additives mean that microbes, fungi, other living things can consume the material).
  • Most conventional plastics will become microplastics through abiotic degradation (like photo-degradation) before biodegradation begins (Thomas et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2021). This means that plastics predominantly stay in the environment as whole sections or microplastics, rather than being consumed or recycled.
  • Plastic products can take anywhere from a few months to possibly forever to degrade, and will create microplastics while they do so (Zhang et al., 2021). A PET single-use plastic bottle buried in landfill has an estimated half-life (time until 50% of the thing is degraded) of more than 2,500 years; this is extrapolated from research which found no measurable degradation (Chamas et al., 2020).
  • Plastics are so durable and so recent that most plastic products have been invented well within their expected lifespan. This means that the first ever plastic toothbrush made in the 1930s (Fischman, 1997) is probably in a landfill somewhere, and will be for many more hundreds or thousands of years.
  • Not all plastics are recyclable. Using recycled plastic and recycling it at the end of life is crucial to reducing waste, so designers need to make the waste path of the material clear. Plastic can be recycled through a chemical process, which converts it into base substances which are then used to create new virgin-grade plastics, or a mechanical process, which grinds it into little chunks which can be heated and re-molded (Ragaert et al., 2017). Plastics cannot be recycled indefinitely, they lose material qualities over time.
  • If plastic must be used, using one single kind of plastic for the whole product is ideal as that's easiest for users to understand and dispose of correctly.
  • Micro-recycling facilities are small scale recycling organisations. Sydney-based plastic mirco-recycling facilities include Defy Design and Banish.
  • Details on what plastics can be recycled vary by local council and state.

To reduce waste

  • Use as little material as possible.
  • Use recycled plastic.
  • Use only one kind of plastic. When plastics must be mixed, make them easily and clearly separable. Preferentially use bio-based biodegradable plastic (learn more in the next section).
  • Ensure that end-of-life disposal is clear for users.

Further information

  • Coming soon.

Bio-Plastics

  • ‘Bio-plastics’ is a larger category than you might realise. It includes plastics that are bio-based but not biodegradable, plastics that are bio-based and biodegradable, and plastics that are fossil-based and biodegradable (Folino et al., 2023; Kunam et al., 2024).
  • Compostable biodegradable plastic needs specific conditions to break down fully and has to be industrially composted rather than composted at home (Ahsan et al., 2023; Kaur et al., 2025). Even when industrially composted, we can't guarantee that compostable bioplastic will properly biodegrade (Folino et al., 2023).
  • Bio-based plastics are broadly less environmentally harmful than petro-based plastics when considering the whole production and life-cycle (Kumari et al., 2023).
  • Bio-plastics pose a communication and design problem; they need to be kept separate from non-biodegradable plastic waste and disposed of properly but the public needs instructions on how to do this (United Nations Environment Programme, 2015).

To reduce waste

  • Use as little material as possible.
  • Preferentially use bio-based biodegradable plastic.
  • Avoiding using more than one type of plastic in a product (like using different materials for inner and outer walls), this makes it much harder to dispose of correctly.
  • Ensure that end-of-life disposal is clear for users.

Further information

Inks

  • Your choice in inks will depend on what material you are printing with, the product's life-cycle, and which printers you are printing with.
  • Industry bodies which certify the sustainability of inks include Greenguard and EcoLogo, look for their certifications.
  • Many parts of the printing process like inks, glues, and varnishes contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs); these should be avoided. The amount of VOCs and HAPs allowed in inks and paints are limited globally by international and national standards (Aydemir & Özsoy, 2020). Water-based inks and UV-cured inks will be low-VOC (Robert, 2015). Talk to your printer or manufacturer about which low-VOC inks they have that would suit your projects.
  • Petrochemical-based inks are common, but not the only option. There are water-based inks, UV-cured inks, and inks made from renewable sources like algae, vegetables, and soy (Robert, 2015).
  • Using oil- and alcohol-based inks may delay the degradation of paper when compared to water- or algae-based inks (Kulla & Tang, 2024), making it last longer if discarded in the environment.
  • De-inking is a process used in both paper and plastic recycling. In essence, de-inking uses a solvent to dissolve the polymers keeping pigments in place, releasing the pigment into the surrounding liquid/solvent and removing the printed image (Ügdüler et al., 2023). The process of de-inking materials depends on what the materials are and what the inks are.

To reduce waste

  • Reduce ink saturation.
  • Preferentially choose companies with Greenguard, EcoLogo, or FSC certifications.
  • Use low VOC inks.
  • Dispose of used cartridges through e-waste recycling facilities.

Further information

  • Coming soon

The Internet

  • Just because something is online, doesn’t mean it is without physical environmental impact.
  • The numbers here are hard to define. The internet produces a lot of CO2, creates a lot of waste, uses a lot of water, and continues to this more and more as it becomes a more tighter interrelated part of everyday life.
  • The planetary impact of the internet comes from, effectively, three main elements:
    • End-user equipment.
    • Data-centres.
    • Access networks like antennas and cables.
  • Digital product designs consume energy when hosted in data-centres. Files, even emails, consume energy when hosted in data-centres.
  • The numbers are unclear but the use of AI appears to have a considerable and signficantly harmful ecological impact.
  • More research coming soon.

To reduce waste

  • Publish only live code lines, AKA tree-shake your code.
  • Use green-hosting services.
  • Remove unused files and ensure filetypes are correct for each use.
  • When creating a site, minimise file size with something like tinypng.
  • Set time limits with colleagues/clients for how long files will stay online.

Further information

E-Waste

  • E-waste often contains recyclable elements (glass, metal, some plastics) or re-usable components but separating these safely is not a job for you to do at home.
  • E-waste ends up in landfill, scrapped for materials (low efficiency), or recycled through disassembly (high efficiency). (Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2021)
  • In 2019, Australia produced 3 times the global average of e-waste per capita. Only 54% of this waste was recovered for recycling or re-use. (Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2021)
  • To reduce waste: reduce the amount of products you purchase or use, donate home appliances, buy refurbished when possible, take e-waste to council or community repair centres, and use e-waste recycling facilities.

To reduce waste

  • Reduce the amount of products bought and disposed of.
  • Try to re-use products or seek out repair clubs in your area.

Further information

  • Coming soon.

Metals

  • Metal, like plastic, has many different sub-types with varying properties and costs. Metals are, by and large, extremely recyclable; recycling metals is much more energy effective than producing them from virgin resources (Bigum et al., 2012; Miller & Aldridge, 2012; Reck & Graedel, 2012).
  • Many metals, like aluminium, don't lose mass or structural integrity when recycled. They can be recycled infinitely as long as the waste stream isn't contaminated (M. Reuter et al., 2013). In Australia, while metal is recycled and recovered at a much higher rate than other materials, much more could be captured and recycled (Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, 2024).
  • It is better for the recycling process if products are simpler: less mixed metals, easily disassembled, and less joints between components which will prevent recycling. Complex products, like a washing machine, can still be recycled but must go through multiple recycling processes to get the most out of the product (M. Reuter et al., 2013).

To reduce waste

  • Reduce the amount of metal used.
  • Use recycled metal.
  • Do not mix metal types within a product.
  • Preferentially use materials like aluminium which can be recycled repeatedly.
  • Ensure that end-of-life disposal is clear for users.

Further information

  • Coming soon

Other Resources

Linked sources throughout this page are not affiliated in any way, but are recommended. If you have any resources to recommend or contribute to the community, please suggest them.

Community Resources

This section is under construction. Please send suggestions to Thea at hello@betterworlds.now.

References