Design Life-Cycle
assess.design.(don't)consume
Chelsea Hernandez
Professor Christina Cogdell
DES040A
March 11, 2014
Crayola Crayons: Raw Materials
The Binney & Smith Company, more commonly known as Crayola, has been dominating the American market in crayon production all while tapping in to the Earth’s supply of nonrenewable resources (“Crayon”). The final product appears simple when in fact the process requires materials multiple natural and synthetic ingredients, some of which took millions of years to develop. Many people know of the Crayola name, but very few know of the petroleum byproducts that go into making the art tool that is used by so many children each and every day.
The history of the Crayola Crayon Company begins in 1885 with Edward Binney and Harold Smith founding the Binney & Smith Company (The Life). Since the beginning, the Binney & Smith Company has been involved with color; one of their products early on was a red oxide pigment. Much of the company’s history and the location of the factory is rooted in the company’s development and production of carbon black. The carbon black comes from natural gas, which was available all over Pennsylvania (“History”). At the Paris Exposition in 1900, the company introduced their black colorant, and it won them a gold medal for chemical and pharmaceutical arts. Carbon black continued to be developed and distributed by the Binney & Smith Company to other companies and countries. By listening to the needs of teachers, Binney & Smith created the first dustless chalk in 1902. Also in 1902, the company created the Staonal Marking crayon. In the following year, the Binney & Smith Company responded to a need for an inexpensive and safe wax crayon by creating the first box of eight Crayola crayons and selling it for five cents (“History”). Alice Binney, a school teacher and the wife of Edward Binney, is responsible for coining the name Crayola (The Life). The number of colors available in a box of crayons grows to 48 in 1949, then 64 in 1958, and for the 90th anniversary, a box featuring 96 crayons is sold. In 1966 the company goes public and expands in the following years. By 1996, Crayola had reached the 100 billion mark for crayon production (The Life, “History”).
Today, all of the regular sized crayons are made in Easton, Pennsylvania (The Life). The process of creating a Crayola Crayon begins when rail cars deliver paraffin wax to the factory (“You’ve Got”). Steam is used to heat up the wax, and then it is stored at 175 degrees Fahrenheit in silos with the capacity of 17,000 gallons. Next, the paraffin wax is brought to the plant from the silo and mixed together in a kettle with one or more pigments and other ingredients. This mix is then heated to 190 degrees Fahrenheit and placed into a mold with 1200 crayon shaped slots. To cool the mix, water at 55 degrees Fahrenheit circulates underneath the mold, and then hydraulic pressure is used to eject the crayon from the mold. Before being wrapped, the crayons are inspected, and if a crayon does not pass inspection it is sent back to be melted and molded again (Seiver). For the paper label, crayons are placed on to another machine that will send it down a track and around a drum (Terdiman). The label will be wrapped around twice to ensure strength, and then a glue is used to fasten it (Seiver, The Life). Once they are wrapped the crayons are inspected by an employee to make sure there are no broken tips, and next they are placed in a box and sent to the packaging section of the factory (“You’ve Got”). In one day, the factory can produce 13.5 million crayons, and in a year a total of three billion crayons are produced (The Life).
Research uncovered that crayons are unique in that their requirements conflict one another. A crayon must be soft enough to leave a mark, but it must also maintain a rigid structure so that it does not break too easily. Consequently, this is why the product is composed of various waxes and additives (Brinkman). Identifying the raw materials used in this process was difficult because Crayola only names paraffin and pigments as ingredients that they use. All of the other ingredients are part of a proprietary blend. Even the safety reports for Crayola crayons do not state specifically what is used, which is why for further information on the make-up of crayons, patents were used (Material). Robert Brinkman, the inventor of a crayon wax composition, states in his patent that crayons typically consist of paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, stearic acid, and pigments (The Life, Brinkman).
Waxes, which are solids made up of long chain, alkane compounds, are discharged from crude oil as the temperature drops (Kelland). Crude oils are the remnants of animal and plant matter from millions of years ago, and it is derived from the pores of the earth’s surface. Crude oil extraction is categorized as either upstream or downstream. In upstream, wells are drilled in order to get unprocessed oil to the surface. The refinement, selling, and distribution of crude oil is referred to as downstream. In order to obtain the crude oil, gravimeters and magnetometers are used to identify where it is located, and then oil rigs are used to create wells (“Extraction”). The refining process, known as fractional distillation, involves separating the compounds in the crude oil with different heating temperatures. When it is inside the hot furnaces, the crude oil will separate into fractions. These fractions change into a gaseous state and go through a distillation tower, and as it gets higher in the tower, the gas will cool down and become a liquid. A conversion method known as cracking will also be used for some of the fractions that need to undergo even more changes. In this method, high heat and a catalyst are used to breakdown the molecular substances even more, and then the outcome will be a usable end product (“Extraction”).
Heavier fractions of petroleum extracts generate the paraffin wax. Paraffin is one of the four hydrocarbons that make up petroleum, and it is through the distillation process that these hydrocarbons are separated (“Micro”). The distillate must be dewaxed to get the slack wax, and then it is deoiled to get the final product. Wax crystals are cast down from crude oil when the wax appearance temperature, also known as WAT, is reached. The WAT can be as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit, but it all depends on the pressure, oil composition, and bubble point. As the size of molecules increase, the melting point does as well, and the higher this melting point is, the harder it is to keep the paraffin from developing deposits. Commercial paraffin wax has hydrocarbons with molecular weights that average between 360 degrees to 492, but there are a few with molecular weights reaching 600. Typically the melting point ranges from 120 degrees Fahrenheit to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (Brinkman). The paraffin comes in slabs and is characterized as a colorless, translucent crystalline mass that has no odor and taste (“Micro”). The odor factor is important because one of concerns early on was that children would try to eat the crayon (“Crayons”). Aside from crayons, paraffin can also be utilized for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, candles, castings, and other industrial applications (“Micro”).
For the wax base, paraffin is the preferred ingredient, but there may also be a microcrystalline wax and/or waxes and mixtures derived from animals, insects, and vegetables (Brinkman). Microcrystalline wax is created when petroleum is de-oiled as part of the petroleum refining process. This type of wax differentiates itself from paraffin wax because it has a higher percentage of isoparaffinic hydrocarbons and naphthenic hydrocarbons (“Micro”). The microcrystalline melting point is around 140 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit (Brinkman). The key characteristics of microcrystalline wax include the fineness of its crystals, high tensile strength, and its tougher high melting point (“Waxes”). Crystalline wax aids in the binding of solvents and oils since it is more adhesive, and its application can be found in tires, candles, cosmetics, and castings (“Waxes”, “Micro”).
Stearic acid, which is a hydrophobic fatty acid, is the adhesive component in crayons. This adhesive is one of the most common fatty acids, and it can be found in many animal fats and vegetable oils (Blackburn). Not only is it an adhesive in crayons, but in fingerprint powders as well because of its prevalence and hydrophobic qualities. It has a similarity to acacia powder, which is also an adhesive used for fingerprint powders, in that for any oil or water interface it is a hydrophobic binder (Moses). The amount used typically ranges from about twenty to forty percent by weight (Brinkman).
Aside from the paraffin and chemical pigments commonly stated as the main ingredients in crayons, there may also be polyethylene in the composition. Polyethylene is a polymer that is created though the chemical synthesizing of ethylene, which typically comes from petroleum or natural gas. It can be applied to crayons because it is able to be melted into a liquid and then put in a mold where it will become a solid once again (Brinkman). In 1973, Robert Brinkman discovered how to improve the crayon composition with the use of polyethylene, and subsequently, he was awarded a patent from the United States for an improved crayon wax composition. Small amounts of polyethylene with a molecular weight approximately ranging from 500,000 to 6,000,000, are included in the composition because this improves the resistance to high ambient temperature, while also allowing a substitution in the wax base of a low melting point wax for a high melting point wax. Also, this results in a brighter crayon (Brinkman).
Crayola’s original box of crayons featured only eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black. Today Crayola provides over 150 crayon color options (“History”). A crayon derives its color from a pigment, which is a water and oil insoluble product, and it can be natural or synthetic. Pigments themselves are classified as organic or inorganic. Chemical reactions produce these carbon based pigments and because it is carbon based the pigments are classified as an organic pigment (Travis). To create a pigment, chemicals are combined in tanks and then put through a filter to extract the surplus water. Left behind is chunks of a pigment, which is then dried in a kiln. Once dry, pigments are mixed to get the correct color, made into a powder, and then for consistency purposes it is blended (“Crayon”). Suppliers then send the pigments to the factory, and for Crayola, their dry color pigments are supplied by the Hoover Color Corporation in Hiwassee, Virginia (“Crayon”, Seiver). The pigment must be mixed in with the hot wax, and in some cases multiple pigments may be required to achieve the right color (“Crayon Pigment”). Chemical pigments are added according to the desired color density, and this means approximately 0.5 percent to 25 percent by weight can be added (Brinkman). Since the pigments are a dusty powder, an air handling system is needed to ensure the room is not covered with the pigment dust. Any pigment used has to be non-toxic, which means there cannot be lead, cadmium, or other heavy metal pigments (“Crayon Pigment”).
The glue used for the paper wrapping consists of cornstarch and water. Creating cornstarch begins when soaking is used to take off the outer layer of corn kernels. There is then a separation between the germ and the endosperm, and the starches present in these two are washed away. To remove the gluten and other substances a centrifuge may be used, and then the remaining may be modified further before being mixed with water to form the glue (Seiver).
As for the paper wrapping, there is no information disclosing how it is produced (Seiver). Again, the Crayola Company keeps hidden a lot of what goes into the production process. People are able to watch a demonstration of the process at the visiting center in Pennsylvania, but there are no visitors allowed in the actual production plant (Terdiman).
When it comes to recycling their products, Crayola only has a program for their markers. Known as ColorCycle, this program by Crayola takes the markers it receives from schools in the United States and parts of Canada and turns it into fuel by melting them (“Crayola ColorCycle”). Recycling crayons is in the hands of Crazy Crayons, a company that voluntary turns crayon scraps and into new crayons. This national crayon recycling program prevents 93,000 pounds of unwanted, broken, and rejected crayons from ending up in landfills. A total of 120,000 pounds of crayons are made each day, much of which goes to the dump, and Crazy Crayons is looking to detour this fossil fuel based product from adding to the garbage by having educators and people in the community encourage children to get involved in recycling. People are able to participate in this program by either disposing of the crayons at a drop site or shipping it to the company, The company utilizes these disposed crayons by creating new, star shaped crayons that have the option of being two toned (“National”). Since there is no information on how they transform the crayons, I looked to a patented process for reclaiming scraps of crayons by Grace Shafir. Her patented process begins with the scraps being placed into a nonmetallic cylindrical mold that has been lined with a vegetable oil release agent. Next the mold is placed in a domestic microwave oven until the scraps become a molten mass. When it cools and becomes a solid, a new crayon can be ejected from the mold (Shafir). Shafir’s invention brings the importance of recycling to an accessible level by giving people the opportunity to do it themselves since the mold is inexpensive and the tool used to melt the scraps is a typical household item.
The Binney & Smith Company has created a name for themselves with Crayola. This company that began with carbon black has now transformed into a dominating force in the American market with their various art supplies. It is this domination of the American market that has come at the expense our nonrenewable resources. With a majority of the raw materials used in crayons deriving from fossil fuels and the amount of fossil fuels that we have left depleting, this raises the question, what is the future for America’s Crayola crayon?
Bibliography
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Brinkman, Robert B. Crayon Wax Composition. Sun Oil Company of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, assignee. Patent 3933708. 20 Jan. 1976. Print.
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El-Dirdiry, Malak
Professor Christina Cogdell
DES40A
March 13, 2014
Crayons: Energy
The wax crayon is one of the world’s most recognizable childhood product design. It is simple, but it has etched its rightful place in our reel of best memories via unlocking the imagination and creativity of society’s youth. However, there is more to the story than just coloring and aesthetics. Behind the simple wax stick exists a massive industry with an enormous scale of production and logistical map. I believe that the energy aspect of crayon production is extremely important to understand because there is so much history behind this simple industrial design, and the evolution of manufacturing methods has surely reduced the energy use and made crayon factories more efficient and environmentally friendly. Tracking down the exact methods of extracting materials, transporting those materials, incorporating those materials into a final product, and packaging and shipping crayons was more complicated than I had first assumed. Locating the exact numbers related to the energy usage and types of energy involved in the crayon life cycle was like small parts of a bigger puzzle that I was trying to see. However, I believe that I have gathered enough information in order to evaluate the overall energy statistics of the entire journey of a crayon and its ingredients. First of all, we must define what is type of crayon at the center of this particular study.
The word crayon comes from the Latin words oiled chalk, and that is exactly its composition. However, the modern crayon, probably most known as the Crayola, or Binney and Smith Company, crayon is primarily composed of paraffin wax along with varying traces of dry pigment and elastic and oily organic materials (Brinkman). This simple design is familiar almost anybody’s childhood, and that robust, and sometimes stinky, odor is both an acquired taste but mostly a fond memory of any past year in the 107 years that the Binney and Smith Company has been in existence. Although it is a design targeted for grade-schoolers, and not professional artists who probably would prefer more sophisticated artistic tools, the crayon has paved its way into all parts of society. It is a fact that the crayon is 18th out of 20 of the most recognizable scents for American Adults (Py-Lieberman). Therefore, the Crayola crayon can be and must be considered a truly American icon, and the exploration of the processes that make it are important to consumers. Especially in modern design, which is now turning its focus on sustainability, donation, and practicality, revealing energy input of a the crayon from start to finish is essential. To begin with, one must analyze the major ingredient in a crayon, which is paraffin wax, a mysterious white organic compound that has been the canvas for more colors than anyone can imagine.
There are many reasons why paraffin wax is so popular and useful in many products. Its properties alone make it are stoutly recognizable. Paraffin is simply a mixture between oils such as stearic acid, elastic materials such as ethylene vinyl acetate, natural dry pigments, and, of course, paraffin wax. This extremely versatile substance is organic in structure, and it can be found in the most unexpected place, the waste product of refining oil. It is interesting how the most nonrenewable resource, natural gas, which has so much negativity and greed surrounding it, produces the design of an American childhood. Paraffin is usually colorless or white, odorless and tasteless, and it comes in the form an organic crystal in the refining process of crude oil. Paraffin is used in many other products other than crayons as well, such as cosmetics which indicates that it is safe on the skin. Surprisingly some cosmetics doctors even recommended patients use it as facial therapy. Paraffin is also used in candy production as well as candles and many more. Studies shows that paraffin has high industrial demands because of its properties. Paraffin is a safe product that is even edible to some extent, and that makes it perfect for kids. However, the real question is how energy productive this material is in the ever evolving design market. The major topic of modern design is sustainability, and it is essential for one to decide whether or not the crayon is worth making, or should there be alternatives.
As the leading manufacturer and supplier of the familiar wax crayon, Crayola’s energy activity statistics can stand as an average for the worlds power input and output into making this particular product. Crayola, once known as the Binney and Smith Company after its founders, was established in 1880, but they did not start making crayons until 1903, where the first box of eight crayons was invented (Crayola). Virtually, for the last century, Crayola has been self-made into a tycoon. However, it s a significant fact that in Pennsylvania, the location of the company’s famous factory in Easton, Pennsylvania, there was a discovery of natural gas deposits. It is to no surprise that Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith formed a partnership in the business of extracting and refining natural gas deposits to form carbon black, which was initially used help make slate school pencils Crayola. As it was meant to be, the paraffin wax was already at Binney and Smith fingertips.
For consumers to be able to see how much energy is being used in making crayons, we have to take in consideration how much energy has been put in each and every material and the production process. Crayola's sites only identifies paraffin wax and colored pigments as their main materials because they are extremely secretive. We were not able to find completely what those materials are thus we only found a few of them such as microcrystalline wax and stearic acid. However, it is clear that the first step of crayon production comes from the raw material, paraffin wax. Therefore, to begin with, Crayola’s initial energy input, although indirect, can be derived from its funding of extracting and refining crude oil. Scientific research states that the production, refining, and transportation of oil takes up to 1,243 MJ energy per barrel (Glanfield). Bearing in mind transportation, in 2010, 560 million pounds of paraffin and 600 thousand barrels of oil were shipped to the United States mostly from China and Canada (American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers). That is a immense amount of energy, just for the raw material acquisition, which account for about a third of the crayon life cycle. In addition, considering the wax itself, the final strained product is in the form of large crystalline structures called paraffin and microcrystalline waxes, which have a rating of how much oil is remaining in the ingredient. The waxes have a low melting point of 48 to 60 degrees Celsius, and a normal crayon consists of a 30 to 95 percent by weight paraffin and one to five percent microcrystalline wax (Brinkman). Therefore, as the melting point of the major components of the product are very low, one can predict the extra energy requirements of maintaining heat during production. So, once the wax and other ingredients have been transported and acquired by the manufacturing factory, Crayola begins the combination and production processes.
Crayola produces crayons at a massive scale. The official company site states that they make and ship three billion crayons per year and 12 million per day (Crayola). Thinking about the famous 64-pack box, that divides to more than 100 thousand boxes of crayons per day. However, as the Crayola company is not very open to how much energy they use per year or day, I did find some statistics to help predict the company's global footprint. An article stated that in 2013, Crayola made a partnership with Pennsylvania utilities to make a 15 acre solar farm. The statistics show that this solar farm will make up for one billion of the three billion crayons manufactured per year as well as a reduction of 1900 tons of greenhouse gases per year (U.S. Department of Energy). Putting aside the energy input into making the farm, one can deduce, assuming that the statistics account for approximately one third of the total input, that Crayola expends about 5700 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Using the fact given by the U.S. Energy Department that .00823 of tons of carbon dioxide is equivalent to one gallon of burning gas, Crayola uses about 692588 gallons of gas in the production process, and that ignores the transportation. Therefore, the net energy input for just making a crayon is not at all cheap. However, to really know the total energy used in manufacturing a crayon, one must see how much it takes to transport the final design to the consumers.
After crayons are double-wrapped in labeling paper, inspected, put into various box counts, packaged and shrink wrapped by factory machines, they are shipped to locations all over the world, and in every continent. Crayola's market is divided into three categories, and they sell their products at retail stores like most other products. Statistics say that 25 percent of the world's energy demand comes from transportation, and that the utility factors, such as temperature of the transportation vehicle, is specific and costly for certain products (Rodrigue). For crayons, with a very low melting point, must be kept in cool storage, and when shipping to hot places, or overseas, to ensure that these products maintain their original packaged quality, the process requires more energy. For the international market, which accounts for 13 percent of the world's energy demand with air and maritime transport, consumes more than 1.2 million barrels of natural gas per day (Rodrigue). At this rate, the combination of shipping raw materials from overseas plus shipping the final product back overseas makes the crayon a virtually nonrenewable design. Slowly, the number of crayons available for manufacturing will be diminished. However, there are global efforts done privately, nationally, and by Crayola as well to recycle, keep the business alive, and allow further generations of kids to enjoy to unique artistic pleasure of the wax crayon. Along with Crayola's recent solar farm, there are more efforts to make the crayon business more sustainable. Crayola has a program called the "Green Initiative" and "Color Cycle," and their descriptions can be found on the company site (Crayola). Essentially, the Green Initiative is a plan reducing the water usage, solid waste output, and carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, the program that I think is more interesting and effective is the Color Cycle Program, which funds and encourages educators and even families to send used crayon back to Crayola's recycling plant to make them into new crayons (Crayola). Although, this does not exactly solve the fact that crayons are essentially non-renewable, as is almost any product in existence, it does lengthen the time crayons will exist without having to replace the ingredients. Interestingly enough though, there are no public reports of studies attempting to replace the main ingredient, paraffin, in crayons. This must be because is currently, and will be, a resource that is in excess all over the world, and therefore affordable. The recycling program for Crayola is something I just found out, and there seems to be no reason to throw away blunt crayons anymore. In fact, I am horrified looking back at how many of my crayons, or the world's crayons, are in landfills. In order to save energy importing raw materials and refining them, it is important for consumers to recycle crayons, and support sustainable design.
As with any large international business, the production process requires a massive amount of energy to exist. For the Crayola crayon, it takes millions of barrels of natural gas for both the extraction, refinement, and shipping of raw materials, twice that for shipping of the end products locally and internationally. The crayon, as its main ingredient is paraffin, is not currently a product that is expensive or in scarce quantity. However, as paraffin is derived from refined crude oil waste, it could eventually disappear. Therefore, it is important, with the focus of modern design being the sustainability, to recycle crayons and support Crayola's Color Cycle program. A blunt crayon is a part of the world's landfill that could just be melted into another crayon. For more than a century, the crayon has brought joy to children and adults alike, and the world must not and will not turn its back on generation 1900 to 2000's simple, but brilliant vital design.
Works Cited
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, . "Wax Facts." (2010): n.pag. American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. Web. 13 Mar 2014. <https://www.afpm.org/wax-facts/>.
Brinkman, Robert B. "Crayon wax composition." U.S. Patent No. 3,933,708. 20 Jan. 1976.
Crayola, . "Crayola ColorCycle - Turn Crayola Markers Into Energy!." Color Cycle (2014): n.pag. Crayola. Web. 11 Mar 2014. <http://www.crayola.com/colorcycle>.
Glanfield, Jr., Thomas H. Energy Required to Produce Petroleum Products from Oil Sand Versus Other Petroleum Sources. Diss. Bachelor of Science-University of Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 2002. Print. <http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/29589/52906785.pdf?sequence=1>.
Py-Lieberman, Beth. "The Colors of Childhood."Smithsonian.com. Nov. 1999: n. page. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-colors-of-childhood-36067809/?no-ist=>.
Rodrigue, Dr. Jean-Paul. Transportation and Energy. Diss. Hofstra University, 1998-2014. Web. <https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/ch8c2en.html>.
U.S. Department of Energy, . United States. U.S. Department of Energy. Crayola. August 13, 2010. Web. <http://energy.gov/articles/crayolas-true-color-shines-through-green>.
Racadag, Eric
Professor Christina Cogdell
DES40A
March 11, 2014
Word Count: 2102
Crayons: Waste Process
Learning about the waste production and consumption processes of the modern crayon has changed my perspective on such a common and simple product. The use of colors for artistic expression has existed since the early ages of mankind, and only in the last few centuries has the familiar synthetic paraffin cylinder been set into mold. As a student of biochemistry, learning about the reactions and ingredients used to make a crayon was interesting, and I enjoyed learning about it. Honestly though, my preconceptions that this research would be simple were proven wrong. Tracing the product design process backwards to how the materials are gathered makes a basic drawing utensil seem complex. Also, the fact that crayons are so common restricted the sources to robust design blueprints and small facts, which had to be analyzed and put together into a bigger picture. I refer to this process as a dissection of three bodies: the Crayola industry, the consumers, and the crayon itself. I believe that the information I have put together will suffice in explaining the waste process of crayons and its relation to materials and energy.
At first, I thought that making a crayon was something simple as putting coloring and wax into a mold, however I found out there is a whole chemical industrial process behind it. The key ingredients for making crayons are paraffin and powder color pigments. These materials are usually extracted from crude oil, wood, coal, and shale raw materials, and processed in the factory. The Crayola Factories in Pennsylvania and New Mexico produce approximately three billion crayons a year (American Alternative). At a rate of 650 crayons per single molding machine in the factory and a colossal figure of 12 million crayons created, packed, and shipped per day, one can only imagine the emissions and waste products of this activity (Chavez). However, because the Crayola Company is extremely secretive about everything from their ingredients to processes, it was difficult to find statistics on the yield of waste during daily factory activities. Therefore, I found some details on generic methods such as the fact that the energy input of extraction compared to energy availability in conventional crude oil is 23.2 percent, and that the process requires 1278 mega joules of extraction, refining, and transportation for one barrel of natural oil (Glanfield, Jr.). However, after this is accounted for, there is the extraction and modification of paraffin wax from crude oil, called "wax sweating" and the locating of natural and synthetic dry pigment. In all, the gathering and shipping of resources and daily factory molding, paper wrapping, packaging and shipping activities combines to hundreds of thousands of mega joules of energy, which is at least a thousand gallons of gasoline and .00892 metric tons carbon dioxide emissions per gallon (Environmental Protection Agency). Taking a step back, however, one must realize that the extraction of paraffin from crude oil is only part of the refining process for making the world's useful forms of oil. In fact, while refining oil, producers consistently have problems with wax crystals creating a "natural choke" in tubing used to extract oil from the ground (Glanfield, Jr.). This material is essentially paraffin wax. Therefore, actions such as Crayola's "green initiative" has much action behind it, and the waste of this particular company's factories are emitting less waste than expected (or at least having a low net waste statistic). Before analyzing the recycling efforts however, one must account for the consumer part of the waste equation of crayons.
Growing up, most Americans remember that strong and familiar scent of the crayon box. In fact, the Crayola crayon is "number 18 of the 20 most recognizable scents to American adults" (Py-Lieberman). But has anyone ever thought about what happened of those slightly used crayons that no one wanted to draw with or sharpen? Imagine how many tons, or thousands of tons of crayons should be thrown away every year since Binney and Smith Crayola Company, which started in the late 1800's. The National Crayon Recycling Program in 2014 boasts that they have saved 93000 pounds of used crayons and makes them into new crayons (National Crayon Recycling Program). As there seems to be a united effort to reuse and recycle crayons, one must question the negative effects of a crayon that has been dumped into landfills or in someone's backyard. Therefore, as paraffin is the key ingredient of a crayon, its properties must be analyzed in order for one to evaluate whether or not there is potential for sustainability or further usage of an unwanted crayon.
The paraffin type in crayons is pure paraffin wax combined with extremely elastic ethylene vinyl acetate, and this form can also be turned into various other products including hot glue sticks and candles (ChemBell). These chemicals, to the lay audience would seem suspicious, but in simple terms, all a crayon consists of is dry pigment coloring, oily stearic acid, elastic polyethylene to take the place of ethylene vinyl acetate, and of course, the paraffin wax (Brinkman). If one looks closely, the single thing in common between all of these ingredients is that they are all organic compounds, meaning they contain carbon. Therefore, since they are organic, they have the ability to be broken down in nature easier than non-organic materials. Especially in crayons, however, which are purified for the protection of their young audiences is both safe for the environment, but also a specimen almost meant for transformation and recycling projects. Crayons, having the properties of being non-toxic and even edible because of a purified paraffin wax and natural pigment complex, are very sustainable if there is some effort put into the process of gathering consumer waste. So, instead of throwing away these colorful cylinders, many small organizations and the Crayola Company itself, and grade schools all over the United States are taking the initiatives to recycle crayons.
As there was many crayon companies to choose from, including Rose Art and countless generic brands, I chose the most familiar and largest tycoon, Crayola, to be the focal point of my average crayon waste analysis. Two business entrepreneurs created Crayola, formerly known as Binney Smith Company after the names of its founders, in 1885. As the one of the world’s major purchasers of paraffin, it was only by coincidence that they had already formed alliances with oil drilling companies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania while they were still teens (Gillis). This is appropriate as one of the Company's main factories is located in Easton City, Pennsylvania. There is even a famous American tour here of the factory which shows parts of how crayons are molded. Although Crayola is very secretive in what ingredients they put into their wax molds, they are not at all quiet about how much they care about the wellbeing of society and the environment. The company’s “Green Initiative” can be found online and they have three graphs displaying a significant reduction of carbon dioxide emissions (Figure 1), waste compared to recycling (Figure 2), and water usage (Figure 3). In 2013, as part of this plan, Crayola began "Color Cycle," which was a partnership of Crayola with grade schools that pays for the shipment of used crayons and the spread of environmental awareness (Crayola). The program takes used markers and crayons from schools and converts them into clean burning fuels. This makes sense as the key ingredients are complex organic oils. Paraffin, as well as any other ingredients in the wax crayon is a product of crude oil. However, looking back at the efforts of the National Crayon Recycling Program, there are more ways that Crayola is cleaning up its trail of waste from areas of production as well as consumption.
Other than recycling the crayon product itself into either fuel or new crayons, Crayola has found a new way to reduce its net waste. In 2010, the 107 year-old business was credited for "tapping into the sun's energy to make 1 billion crayons using power from the 1.9 MW solar farm behind its Easton, Pennsylvania plant" (U.S. Department of Energy). The Energy Department claims that the new solar panels give enough energy to account for ten percent of Crayola's production total energy consumption, and this is equivalent to a reduction of 1900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually (U.S. Department of Energy). These statistics show that Crayola has just begun an effort of sustainability, and it appears to be very promising. As the greenhouse emissions, use of fossil fuels for industrial purposes, and consumption waste of crayon products are all reduced, there does not seem to be much waste for which to list. Most of the wastes that come from crayon production, at least for Crayola, is really just raw materials for remaking crayons or other purposes such as creating organic fuels. Thus, in this particular case, the raw material, energy, and waste cycle is a cycle that is self sustaining. However, the one important thing to remember is that human power and effort in creating sustainability projects and recycling is the only way crayon production can complete its cycle have little to no effect on the environment. This reversibility of waste products proportional to social awareness and action is applicable to almost all products. However, with human actions, there is always a flaw and there are parts of crayon production and consumption that are negative and for the currently irreversible.
The fact that the production and consumption of crayons has become very self-sustaining made it difficult to find the actual net wastes that could not be cleaned up. Even in the production process, Crayola uses leftover crayon and paper to make more crayons, so there is not much physical waste that the company reports (Crayola). First of all, I calculated that it takes approximately a minimum amount of 40000 gallons of jet fuel to fly barrels of crude oil overseas. This would account for a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions, but Crayola could easily derive its paraffin from local or national crude oil refineries in America or Canada. Therefore, oil extraction and shipping of paraffin, other raw material, and especially final products would not account for much gas or solid emission, but a large amount of energy usage. However, I do think that if it takes a high temperature of 120 degrees Celsius to work with paraffin wax, one emission could be in the form of chemical and thermal energy (Brinkman). Other than that, Crayola is a very eco-friendly and environmentally responsible company. This sounds good, but they are not completely perfect. In 1947, there was an incident where a "28 year-old boy ...appeared to be having a heart attack and was in critical condition” because he ingested a crayon with asbestos in it while at nursery school (Clark). The idea that Crayola crayons at one point and even now damaged their reputation and there is also a form of unaccounted waste present. Asbestos is not particularly healthy for people or the environment, so it can be considered a waste. On the other hand the fact that I have to refer to an incident that happened more than 50 years ago shows how clean the Crayola Company is in the production of wax crayons.
The Crayola wax crayon, being one of most familiar and purchased products of design for the means of design in the U.S and in the world, is an essential specimen for analysis. The process of starting at a single industrial product design and filling in the blanks of where and how the raw material ingredients were found to how those ingredients were put together and then packaged and shipped to consumers is not at all simple. It was complicated especially for something as simple as a crayon because there was not much ingredients to evaluate and that the companies making them were very secretive. One had to rely on putting together old patents and small pieces of important information from various books, articles, and government databases. This intense exploration of the product design could be analogous to being a detective solving a crime. The conclusion, however, for the wax crayon was worth it. Crayola, a truly American company has made the material, energy, and waste cycle an actual circular and self-sustaining product design. This would most likely not be present in other newly invented products because the companies backing them have not been around long enough or gained enough power, resources, and credibility to care or even attempt to complete the cycle. The non-toxic pure organic crayon is a canvas for evolving sustainability and recycling, which is the major topic of modern design.
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