Design Life-Cycle

Materials

Energy

Paper clips are everyday objects used in households, offices, and schools. It is a necessary supply to normally bind paper together. It may seem that it is a very simple object and that it is very simple to manufacture, but it actually goes through a long process of energy usage. Paper clips require a large sum of embodied energy in their production process. The aspects of the paper clip’s life cycle include different forms of energy used in the galvanization process of steel, strengthening of the steel, physical processing, global mass production and distribution, and recycling.

Paper clips are made through long processes of both physical and chemical changes. Iron ores are the first raw materials required for the production of paper clips. In order to acquire iron ores, it would need to be harvested from the ground. There are many methods for harvesting iron ores, but the two main ways are using human labor or using explosives. Humans are prime movers, so they output kinetic energy to create work. As humans can not harvest something as solid as the metal from the ground with their bare hands, they would require a specialized tool like a pickaxe. Using the pickaxe, the kinetic energy from a person would transfer into the tool along with gravitational energy from the earth to create a force strong enough to strike against the ore for harvesting. Sometimes iron ores are found in ‘taconite’, which is a sturdier type of iron formation; this is more difficult for a pickaxe to deal with. In this case, explosives would be needed through a method called “blasting”. Dealing with explosives uses chemical energy to spark the reaction and the following reaction creates thermal energy. This explosion would cause the taconite to break into pieces, making it easier to collect the iron ores.

Once the materials are acquired from the ground, it would need to be transported to the facility. Normally, people would use machines like electric shovels to scoop up taconite pieces. This requires kinetic energy from humans to activate the machine, and thus it would convert to mechanical energy. Using the shovel, the pieces are then loaded onto a truck, which is displayed as gravitational energy. Gravitational energy, mechanical energy, and kinetic energy are applied to the truck, as it is driven towards the facility. Upon arriving at the facility, the iron ores must be separated within the taconite pieces. Machinery, like magnetic rollers, is used to extract the ore from the rock. Magnetic rollers use magnets, which use stored potential energy and converts it into electrical energy when it becomes in contact with the ores. Through this process, it uses mechanical energy and kinetic energy from humans activating it.

The iron ores would then be smelted through a blast furnace. Before that, a “coke furnace” is used to clean coal from its impurities so it would be yielding an almost pure form of carbon. This uses thermal energy in the furnace and chemical energy to change the coal into the result of “coke”. To make molten steel, iron ores, coke, and lime are placed into the blast furnace; this process goes through thermal energy within the heat of the furnace and chemical energy to combine the ingredients to make molten steel. After it is in its liquid form, the molten steel is then poured into casts, where it cools and undergoes another chemical change to become solid. Once the steel is solidified, it becomes ready for shipment and is transported through trucks, which use the same forms of energy as mentioned before.

The steel then becomes galvanized steel in a method called “hot-dip galvanizing”. This is a process of coating iron, steel, or aluminum with a then zinc layer. In this case, steel is used and it is done by passing it through a molten bath of zinc at a temperature of around 860 °F (460 °C). Through this, it uses thermal energy in the molten bath of zinc and chemical energy when the steel gets passed through it. The steel is then exposed to the air, where the pure zinc reacts with oxygen to form zinc oxide, which further reacts with carbon dioxide to form zinc carbonate. This makes it use chemical energy for all of the chemical changes, making it become a dull grey, fairly strong material that stops corrosion and protects the steel against elements. Usually, galvanized steel is widely used in applications where rust resistance is needed and can be identified by the crystallization patterning on the surface (often called a “spangle”).

Galvanized steel is used by manufacturers all around, but in the case of a paper clip, the galvanized steel is made into a spool. Using the spool, a worker uses kinetic energy to feed the ends of the wire into a caper clip machine which uses mechanical energy, electrical energy to power it, and kinetic energy to shape the wire. The machine bends the wire to make the famous “gem design”, which is usually three curved bends. This process is very fast and can churn out hundreds of paper clips a minute. After that, the paper clips fall into a box, which uses gravitational energy, and it is ready to be shipped.

Paper clips are very sturdy and are used all around the world in a variety of ways. This means that its waste is not a problem since it is reusable. The flexibility in its usage lets people not only bind paper together but also to be used in other creative ways such as to unclog a salt shaker, clean nails, remove hair from hair brushes, etc. Paper clips are also 100% recyclable. When recycling the paper clips, it is often asked that people remove the paper clip from the papers so that metal detecting equipment can easily separate it. These machines use magnets, so it also uses stored potential energy and converts it into electrical energy when detecting the paper clips. The machines also use mechanical energy and electrical energy when activating it. People who monitor these machines use kinetic energy to function them. When recycled, the paper clips can be melted into other metals and cast to form other metallic objects. This means that paper clips are never blindly wasted and always has a purpose, even when it is no longer needed.

In conclusion, paper clips, as simple as they may be, require a lot of energy in not only the production but also in the acquisition of materials and distribution. It was a bit difficult to find sufficient information about the energy required for the paper clips’ life cycle through articles and manufacturing domains. Energy comes in many forms and is found everywhere, but even so, the simplicity of this product has affected how much information can be retrieved about its energy requirements in its production process.

Waste

Paper clips, the small looped pieces of galvanized steel that are manufactured in millions every year, aren’t simply used to hold paper together; they have been known to serve a variety of different purposes, including hooks to hang things, and tools to pry things open and clean the dirt from small crevices. These varied uses and simple design made this an invention that was thought to have set a precedence for environmental consciousness.

However, if we go deeper into the assessment of their manufacture, we realize that these simple objects may pose a larger threat to the environment than originally believed. While the manufacture of paper clips itself does not contribute much to this threat, the same cannot be said about the manufacture of its raw materials – namely, steel.

While the byproduct is cheap and there is not much manpower needed, there are significant air and water contaminants from the manufacture of steel. Moreover, paper clips are often recycled incorrectly along with paper, or simply thrown away in masses, showing that this miniscule design can in fact cause much environmental harm merely due to the negligence with which it is used and disposed, and the meaningless quantity that is manufactured.

To fully understand the effects of this large-scale use in relation to production, we must first know how important the study of waste products is. Waste emissions are often overlooked when studying about a design so small as a paper clip. In fact, there are only a handful of articles written about the waste released in the manufacture of paper clips. However, the study of waste and byproducts for a certain design is a defining feature of how sustainable it is. This is because, generally the air pollution from gas emissions, water pollution from oil and insoluble liquids dumped into water bodies and sewers, and ozone depletion as a result of this, often surpasses the gain a product offers us. All these are studied by researchers assessing waste management and its effects on environmental wellbeing. “We are now faced with dealing with past accumulations of wastes, and also with the tremendous task of establishing new guidelines and solutions to combat with ever increasing amount of waste” (The Importance of Waste Management to Environmental Sanitation: A Review, 2018). We apply this importance to paper clips as well, when we say that these small objects that have led to improved convenience, may have also contributed to pollution in ways that are not immediately obvious to us.

This contribution, however, was not stagnant. In looking at the history of the paper clip, we see that the waste emissions as a result of this manufacture only grew over time.

The paper clip has been in use since as far as the 1800s, when the need for keeping papers together was first realized. It started out with these sheets of paper being bound together, then later people began to fasten them with pins and string. It was only later when low-cost steel manufacture came about, that the method to keep papers together took an important turn. The development of paper clips started with the Gem clip in 1904, created by Cushman and Denison, an American office supplies manufacturer (The Perfection of the Paper Clip, 2012). Even in older times, however, the byproduct was more or less the same; the only difference is that since production wasn’t at such a large scale, environmental effects were not assessed very deeply. But over the years, due to increased production, the effects of this manufacture are being studied more closely.

Definitely, the paper clip market has maintained some of its regular product standards over time. Though there are some differences in the waste emissions of plastic and metal paper clips, the majority of the waste emissions are from manufacturing the steel from the metal clips, which also happens to be the most sought-after design. “Although colorful polymers and new shapes have tried to take over the paper clip market, the classic double-oval clip has proven that it is a true gem” (The Paper Clip, 2004). Another thing to consider is the advancements in technology and awareness of waste management that have come about in later years. These days, companies in charge of producing galvanized steel are doing more to ensure that there is minimal wastage in these byproducts. For example, Galvan Industries, a steel manufacturing company, has adopted newer approaches to sustainable manufacturing. “The company introduced a continuous recycling process that removes metals from the cleaning baths in the form of metal salts” (Hot Dip Galvanizing, 2012). These days, steel is made partly from recycled raw materials, though this does not entirely curb the problem of harmful emissions. “Virtually all of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with steel production are from the carbon dioxide emissions related to energy consumption” (Steel Production & Environmental Impact).

This brings us deeper into the manufacturing process of steel.

Galvanized steel is the primary raw material used in the manufacture of paper clips, and is made mostly through the hot-dip process, wherein the carbon steel is submerged into a molten zinc bath. It is then removed from the zinc bath and cooled, and reacts with the oxygen in the air, which causes the zinc to become part of the steel (Galvanized Steel: How is it made, 2014). Coke production is one of the main stages in making steel, and the water that comes in contact with coke during the cooling process, runs into sewers and is itself an important contaminant. Coke oven gas, naphthalene, ammonium compounds, crude light oil, sulfur and coke dust are among the emissions released into the air (Steel Production & Environmental Impact). But despite this, the byproducts emitted from steel manufacture are seldom wasted. With reference to the metal salts in the metal-removal process, it is mentioned that “These metal salts are concentrated and precipitated out, then centrifuged to remove liquids. The resulting zinc-iron heptahydrate crystal is sold for use as an animal feed supplement instead of being sent to a landfill as a waste byproduct” (Hot Dip Galvanizing, 2012).

Although it takes a lot of work to make even a single paper clip, most of this work does not come from manual labor. This work is mostly automated; in fact, there are dozens of machines that make about a hundred paper clips an hour (How Are Paper Clips Manufactured, Vale, 2017). Thus, there is not a lot of physical manpower required in the production of paper clips, but definitely much electrical energy is used.

The fact that it is so easy and convenient to manufacture might be the leading cause of the continuous growth of the paper clip industry.

Thus, the third thing we need to think about when we assess waste is the use of the paper clip in proportion to the manufacture, and whether or not the supply of the paper clip adequately meets the demand. Americans buy billions of paper clips annually, according to a 2011 statistic. So it is clear that the paper clip industry is booming.

The paper clip was already being marketed in the US as early as 1908. Since then a number of variations have cropped up, including the ‘frictioned Gem’, the Perfect Gem, the Marcel Gem, the Universal Clip, the Nifty Clip, the Peerless Clip and the Glide-on Clip (The Perfect Design, Petroski, 1993). All these were important iterations of this design in order to suit the newer and more advanced needs of the public. So wastage is only in proportion to the amount of demand and consumption.

Seeing these statistics, however, the question arises – what is the cause of this demand? To know and understand the real necessity of the demand, we need to ask ourselves if we are using much more than we require. In other words, does our use of the paper clip do justice to the amount of energy consumed in its production?

No doubt in terms of convenience and organization, paper clips are unparalleled. Their uses are many, and they come in different kinds. They are ubiquitous, since paper is used in almost every field of work. So it is understandable that they are owned by almost every household and workplace. But this is not the sole reason the demand is so high. A surprising fact is that this high demand is mainly due to incorrect disposal. Paper clips cannot simply be thrown in a recycle bin along with other recyclable items. Since they are made of metal, they must be recycled in bulk as scrap metal. However, most people try to recycle paper clips along with paper, which doesn’t work because they are too small to be sorted along with other metals, and end up not getting recycled (Paper Clip Math, Julie, 2016). This is the reason that most paper clips end up in landfills, adding to the overall waste compilation. Not only that, they are often bent out of shape and thrown away, which adds to the unnecessary waste and increased demand. “If we can’t wrap our heads around the environmental math, at least we can wrap our heads around the aggregate shortsightedness of landfilling more than 8,000 tons of perfectly useful clips while buying 11 billion more. Every year.” (Paper Clip Math, Julie, 2016) Most researchers will agree that when it comes to small objects like paper clips that are available in abundance, people are generally careless in preserving them.

This is the main reason for the high levels of consumption. Each ton of steel manufactured releases two tons of carbon gas. Moreover, the carbon emissions from steel manufacture are responsible for around 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (One Order of Steel; Hold the Greenhouse Gases, Chandler, 2013). “If each of us throws away usable paper clips at a rate equivalent to 5/month, the combined annual waste of manufactured steel – in thrown away paper clips – equates to more than 7 billion grams (or 8045 tons) of steel, and more than 16,089 tons of CO2E” (Paper Clip Math, Julie, 2016). So while this product is so useful and sustainable to an extent, the full environmental gain can only be felt if we are conscious in preserving and disposing of them correctly.

Thus, though paper clips definitely stand to gain as compared to the less “green” household objects, the difference between incognizant use and conscious demand of these products is becoming increasingly apparent.

So we notice two things throughout the study of the paper clip and waste emissions: one, a growing industry meaning increased consumption and increased waste, and two, the responsibility of the steel manufacturing industry for most of this waste. Paper clips started out as a simple and affordable solution to an early problem, and they continue to be an invaluable investment for people worldwide. And it has been seen that since olden times, they have been a solution that has not seen many bad roads due to their environmental sustainability.  But just like every other manmade commodity, we have seen that paper clips have their share of emissions and their own contribution to our carbon footprint, even if this contribution isn’t as great as that of some other larger products. And we see that this contribution stems from large-scale use and incorrect disposal of paper clips, and the subsequent manufacture to meet the demand. And like any other product, waste emissions and byproducts of paper clips form a significant part of what the product entails to us as consumers.