Note to the Notemakers: Not So Tough, Please
Modern life is complicated, and we all need reminders of what we’re supposed to be doing – hence the rise of Post-It notes, everyone’s favorite temporary reminder. Except…maybe they’re not temporary enough.
Post-Its are one of the most lauded accidental inventions in history. A 3M scientist named Spencer Silver invented a kind of glue that refused to stay stuck. Decades later, fellow employee Art Fry used it to make a temporary bookmark that didn’t rip a hole through his hymn book when removed, and after playing with the idea a while, pitched it to 3M. The company patented it and made a mint before the patent expired and everyone leaped on the bandwagon.
Today, the term “Post-It note” has virtually become the generic name for the product – and no modern office would be complete without a forest of sticky, amazingly versatile, predominantly neon squares of paper.
Yet the note’s strength – its sheer throwaway nature – has become a weakness. Acres of these notes have a depressingly short lifespan before they’re lobbed into the trash. Most of the major brands of sticky note (including 3M’s Post-Its) are recyclable and recycled, but a huge proportion of this high-turnover stationery still ends up in landfills – which is a problem.
Yes, paper biodegrades, but far far slower in the anaerobic conditions of a landfill (pdf) than is popularly believed. Paper can take years or even decades to break up – so the challenge is to stop it getting there in the first place.
Post-Its aren’t designed to last like other paper stationery – so why not build them so they don’t last?
There’s already enormous popular support for throwaway items that biodegrade at an accelerated rate. If sticky note manufacturers found a way for their products to completely fall apart after just a few months, and labeled them accordingly (perhaps with “best before” indicators) then every modern workplace would have a new green habit…and one that nobody would have any problems sticking to.
Image: chris friese
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1 Comment
April 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Great post, Mike!
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