Comments

James Cheng,
Elizabeth Grayburn
Stella Ho
Siting Lin
Rebecca Wormesley

Final PSS

Product Service System

Issue: Recycling of Batteries

Research/Background:

Australia is one of the countries with the highest per capita waste generation.

[Source: http://www.benefits-of-recycling.com/interestingfactsaboutrecycling/]

This means that on average each person in Australia produces more waste than other individuals in almost all other countries.

The most common form of hazardous waste generated by Australians is in the form of batteries.

[Source: http://www.benefits-of-recycling.com/interestingfactsaboutrecycling/]

We all use batteries in our everyday life, whether it be in remote controls, gaming devices, mobiles phones, cameras, etc.

In Australia, it is estimated that on average, each person will go through around 18 batteries a year and a household with children will use an astounding 109 batteries each year.

[source: www.sita.com.au]

However many people don’t realise the danger of disposing batteries in a regular household bin. While safe during use, we need to ensure that all batteries, both single use or rechargeable, are disposed of correctly at the end of their life.

Each year 8,000 tonnes of hazardous battery waste ends up in Australian landfill.

[source: http://www.australianfranchises.com.au/articles/battery-world-launches-battery-recycling-program.html]

Rechargeable batteries contain metals such as cadmium, which can be harmful to the environment. Rechargeable batteries commonly contain toxic metals such as nickel-cadmium (NiCad), nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion, which can harm the environment by contaminating soil and groundwater.
Lead acid batteries contain lead and sulfuric acid, which can both be toxic for the environment. When recycled, the lead, sulfuric acid, and plastic casing can be recovered, helping make lead acid batteries 96% recyclable. 

Current Solutions:
Local councils have set up collection bins/outlets for people to dispose of their used batteries. However the percentage of people using them is very low. People need more of an incentive to recycle their batteries, and these recycling point should also be more accessbile, or in places that people frequent often.

Concept:

My concept is a fun dispensing device for disposing of batteries. Consumers drop their batteries into the slot at the top and time it to try and get the battery to fall in the rotating slot at the bottom. If they make it it, they receive a coupon or a ticket or something like that. It is similar to arcade games and machines where you can win tickets.

The product is wall mounted and can be located in local shopping malls, supermarkets, or other places that people frequent often. The inside back wall of the machine (green in the diagram) could be used as advertising space, offering companies an incentive to donate coupons for the machine in exchange for free advertising. Batteries can be easily collected by council employees but emptying the bottom part using a key to open it.

The lightbulb conspiracy is an insightful short film/documentary that follows the development and execution of premeditated obsolescence throughout the 1900s and early twenty first century. Examples include anything from early light bulbs to Apple’s ipod, and are used to highlight the impact that these designs as well as our attitudes are having on our environment. Millions and millions of tonnes of waste enter landfill and dump sites due to consumers discontinuation and replacement of product after product after product. The western world is extremely wastefull, and this film aims to educate designers as well as consumers about the impact their actions are having.

It cannot be argued that Edison’s invention of the light bulb in the 1881 was one of the most significant inventions, even significant to this very day – as the light bulbs we use now have barely changed. However the invention of this long-lasting consumer product saw a downturn in consumer needs, as it did not need to be replaced as often as previous sources of light. This saw the start of product ‘life-fixing’, where designers would purposely design products intended to have a short life span, to encourage consumer spending. At the time this was not seen as unethical as it is today. Designers did this to encourage more consumer spending and to lift the economy, not thinking about the impacts of these actions on the environment. As more and more products were designed with an ‘end of life’ and they began to reach these, more and more waste was created, and people slowly began to realise how this was degrading our environment.

Today our society is very aware and conscious of how we are affecting our environment, and more emphasis is placed on protecting the earth for generations to come. Product life-fixing is therefore now seen as unethical and extremely wastefull. This video is important to designer and consumers alike, as it informs us of how the choices we make, and the designs we create, have the potential to either save or destroy our environment. After watching this video, designers will inevitably be more conscious or their design efforts, and aim to create designs that will protect and help restore our environment. Or at least won’t affect it as much. In order to enforce sustainability we have to eliminate planned obsolesce, and encourage people that longer-lasting products are better.

Peer Comments

Zenon Zoltaszek
Dale Wakeham
Anurag Shivach
Sarita Parto
Andrew Bae

Cormack Packaging

ChocAlot Fun ‘Squeeze’ pack is a fun new way for little masterchefs to create their own atristic toast and sandwiches. Conventional chocolate spread packaging in a jar is difficult for children to open, is very messy to use and requires extra washing up of the knife. With ChocAlot fun ‘Squeeze’ pack, not only does it eliminate mess when making a sandwhich, it is also easy to open, and since it requires no cutlery, additional washing up is eliminated.

ChocAlot Fun ‘Squeeze’ Pack uses bright packaging to appeal to children when on the store shelf, but still follows a similar style of clear packaging with a white cap, so that it is still identifiable as a chocolate spread.

The shape and form of the package indicates the squeezable nature of the product, making the product simple and intiuative to use.

Focus Group Feedback

-Looks too much like coke bottle
-improve overall form
-work on graphic design
-the shape of the bottle would cause some of the nutella to get stuck
-improve renderings
-work on presentation of posters