Category: Project 5

The reason why I choose the topic global warming is I have seen some news about recently Antarctic temperature rises which leads to negative impacts on biology and the environment. Every time I hear news of environmental degradation, it breaks my heart, so I wanted to make some changes that would have a real positive impact on life.

I think many people see protecting the environment as a duty, I want to change it into a lifestyle.

I set the stakeholders as young people between 18-30 years old in China who love to share on social networks.

I choose China because compared with the western developed countries, China generally has not begun to pay attention to the issue of environmental protection. Moreover, I have a better understanding of Chinese people’s living habits and it is more convenient for me to interview specific audiences. I choose young people of a similar generation to me because they are more willing to accept and learn new things.

My research area is about a big concept “zero waste”, which means how to minimize waste in daily life.

My first step is look at my trash, and understand what it is, then I found I have 3 main sources of trash: Food packaging, Product packaging and Clothing waste. Then I made a questionnaire and interviewed 30 young people in between 20 and 30 years old about what is their main waste sources, got almost the same results.

I wanted to design a new product to replace the consumables, when I decided the topic was to protect the environment. After this research I realized that if I designed, produced and sold some new eco-friendly products, which also cause unnecessary waste. The most fundamental solution is to reduce the consumption of goods and reduce the waste of packaging which means we will not produce any trash.

There are already many tutorials on the Internet about how to DIY household products like beeswax or soap. I think the key difference is motivation, how to make people willing to do it and share the experiences and influence more people around them Which can make the balance between the economic, social and environmental aspects of our lives.

Social networks are influencing people’s lives potentially, and many young people want to express themselves through Instagram, such as vegetarianism or love of fitness, there are kind of modern trends. I want zero waste lifestyle to become a new trend like them, people are willing to do this and post on social networks to achieve the goal of change.

Different social platforms will attract users of different ages and preferences. After my research, I chose a social platform called REDBOOK in China, which is mainly used by women. It mainly shares lifestyle, including cooking, dressing, beauty makeup and fitness.

I also found an NGO called ZERO WASTE EUROPE which work on a wide range of projects and policy areas with the single objective of advancing the zero waste future for Europe. I sent an email to the office to apply for the design related volunteers, hoping to carry out some cooperation. No reply has been received yet due to corona situation.

In 1987, the Brundtland Report introduced the now-widely-used term “sustainable development”: «Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs ».

In the report, he pointed out the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social factors.

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We need to find the balance between the economic, social and environmental aspects of our lives.

I think a lot of green products are just new consumerism in the guise of environmental gimmicks.

Some people regard environmental protection as a trend and buy some eco-friendly products but do not use them, which also causes unnecessary waste.

I believe the best way to solve this problem is to change people’s lifestyles that helps people learning how to make products by themselves. If we can make it, we don’t need to pay for the package which means we won’t produce any trash.

Even if making your own soap or beeswax wrap isn’t difficult, most people still don’t have the motivation to get started.

Depending on how modern people like to socialize through entertainment, a more social form should be adopted to make people willing to learn about DIY products.

Making tools can be given as gifts to friends, going to workshops together can also replace barbecue parties.

If you take the first step, you have the opportunity to change the way you live.

Doing little things, little change in day-to-day life has a long-term positive impact.

My first step is look at my trash, and understand what it is, then I found I have 3 main sources of trash：

1.Food packaging

Every single thing in fridge was packaged in plastic.

2.Product packaging

Most goods are wrapped in plastic, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, skin care products and so on.

3.Clothing waste

Every season because of the fashion trend to buy new clothes, many old clothes can still be worn out.

Then I made a questionnaire and interviewed 30 young people in between 20 and 30 years old about what is their main waste sources, got almost the same results.

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I find it is interesting, because most people have been able to use shopping bags instead of disposable plastic bags, water bottles instead of disposable water bottles, garbage classification to protect the environment, but ignore the fact that we also produce a lot of plastic waste in daily life.

Through this research, I realized I should do something to change people’s lifestyles that letting people live more sustainably rather than design a new product to generate new resource consumption.

Along the way, I found a big concept named “zero waste” online, some people and companies have made some efforts in this regard.

Like a UK shop named Zéro offers a simple alternative to excessive single-use packaging consumption with a wide range of ready-to-go bulk items. 

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I also found an NGO called ZERO WASTE EUROPE which work on a wide range of projects and policy areas with the single objective of advancing the zero waste future for Europe. This holistic approach enables us to effectively influence European policy and the grass-roots implementation of zero waste projects.

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I sent an email to the office to apply for the design related volunteers, hoping to carry out some cooperation. No reply has been received yet due to corona situation.

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Through tutorial, David confirmed my preliminary ideas and helped me sort them out.

According to the change I want is reducing climate change, I decided to design a product to protect the environment.

David pointed out that I should design better products in various aspects, so that people are willing to use them for a long time to replace consumables.

There are four key points:

1.METARIAL: More eco-friendly and biodegradable materials

2.AREA: Decided specific stakeholder: like toys for kids, kitchen ware…

3.BEHAVE: Through people get used to using the product to protect the environment potentially

4.COMPANY: Look for companies that are exploring the field of eco-friendly materials

The most important thing I’m going to do is making people joy of using the product, which means I need to make it high-quality and is desirable to buy it.

At first, I wanted to make some changes that would have a real positive impact on life, which made me decide to focus on global warming.

This is because I have seen some news recently about Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record which leads to huge ecological problems .

Such as the walrus scaling steep cliffs, then falling to their death:

Weird ‘watermelon snow’ pics show Antarctic turning red:

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Human always ignore the impact of their own behavior and think that it is not a big deal, things like drive their private cars once more or disposable plastic waste.

I haven’t done much research yet, but I have a preliminary idea like repackage a product that causes global warming. People will aware of the specific dangers of not properly handling products when they use it.

Then I want to link packaging to specific changes which is a kind of warning like picture on a cigarette pack about lung cancer.

The biggest risk I faced is to find a way to present it, I wanted to do it a little bit more artistically.