Green Design: January 2014

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

learning reaport - extract

Benefits of Using Marine Plywood for the paint pot

- Waterproof

- Light

- Durable

- Cost effective

- Can come in 6mm thick

- Resistant to splitting and warping

- Can come from FSC certified resources

- Good strength to weight ratio

The problem is that Marine Plywood is only waterproof to some extent so will need to be lined on the inside to protect the joints. The other important factor is that this material is recommended to be reused and not recycled this mean that a secondary use will need to be encouraged.

It seem natural when thinking about Plywood that the container would be square instead of round, this would lead to several advantages.

- - Easy to pour – from corner

- - The handle going diagonal over the container would make it easier to carry, without knocking your leg

- - Easy to stack

- - Less wasted space

- - Saves transport costs

The product being this shape, made from this material would make it stand out from the competition.

Once I decided and made my final container I then had to find a solution for transporting the products. For this I wanted to limited to packaging as much as possible, the benefit to using a box shape is that it lends itself to stacking, it is easier to secure, ideal for pallet use and makes the most of the space available. It means therefore you can get a more on a lorry load and minimise wasted space, which leads to saving on fuel, time and CO2 emissions.

Due to product being made out of Plywood it already has an inherent strength, which allowed me to use minimal packaging for transport purposes. The materials for this part of my design included eco string, cardboard and mushroom packaging. What work with these materials is that all of it is capable of being recycled. The mushroom packaging is also biodegradable and can be using in the customer’s garden.

For this product I have also designed an insert packaging. When a customer purchases the paint pot it will have the insert in it, which can be resealed to keep the paint fresh. The insert will be the same as the refill packaging to encourage customer to buy the refill packaging when possible. Because people are creatures of habit t is likely that they will retain the container to buy a refill, so the outer container can be used again. It is also likely that the refill will cost less, this creates an added incentive to buy the refills only.

For this aspect of the design I wanted to use the material Tetra Pak, the breakdown of this material is shown on the right.

Benefits of Tetra Pak

- Sturdy

- Can stand on its own

- Lightweight

- Adaptable

- Seal in liquid

- The Aluminium protects the contents

The main paint pot has many secondary uses. I didn’t want to limit it application by giving a set secondary use but rather encourage customer to find more practical uses for the container. This may inspire them to think about alternative ways of using this product and others.

I would suggest inserting a leaflet into the transport container showing many of the secondary uses that could be achieved with a little imagination, such as a plant pot, bird box, or storage.

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Eco Material - transporting 2

After looking at Dells approach to packaging I decide I needed to look further into cardboard to see how eco friendly it was.

Cardboard is naturally biodegradable, it is commonly recycled, this is as long as it is

- not wet

- contaminated with food or oil

If cardboard was used with the mushroom packaging and some eco friendly string I think this would use limited packaging but protect the product, as well as all being eco friendly.

Dell packaging

Dell has started growing a new packaging material that is sustainable and compostable.

“The mushroom bioscience is based in using common agricultural waste products. Cotton hulls, rice hulls or wheat chaff are placed in a mold and injected with mushroom spawn. Five to ten days later, the mushroom root structure completes its growth, having utilized the energy inherent in the agricultural waste instead of external energy sources like petroleum. The final product looks and acts like Styrofoam — only this is organic, biodegradable and can be used as compost or mulch, which makes for easier and more environmental-friendly disposal.”

http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukcorp1/corp-comm/mushroom-packaging

This shows me that mushrooms packaging would not be a suitable solution on its own as it would be more of a insert. However it would be more eco friendly use mushroom packaging with a small amount of cardboard. This will mean that my designs ideas will have to be changed slightly to fit this material idea, I will also have to look more further into cardboard to see how eco friendly it is.

Packaging ideas

I looked at current way that the conventional paint pot could be packaged, for ideas that I could possibly adapt for my paint pot design.

Although these are simple ideas, I would like to try and create a design that had even less packaging - possible something the covered the top and bottom, attached by something, similar to the design in the second image but with out the box

I wanted to exclude this one as I thought it was interesting way of using natural products to keep something fragile safe - I found this design encouraged me to think of more possible material to consider, rather than sticking to conventional materials such as card.

Eco Materials - transporting 1

When thinking about a way to package my design for travel, I began to think what is used often, due to this I looked at the following materials - looking for the more eco versions of them

Foam Peanuts - packaging

In recent years biodegradable packing peanuts have entered the market. These are made from starches (such as corn starch and sorghum). In order to determine if your peanuts are made from styrofoam or starch, place them in water. Starch-based peanuts will dissolve. New environmentally correct packing foam is edible. Its made of starch, the same matter that used to manufacture rice and potatoes.

Cardboard

All cardboard can be reused & recycled

String

I know you can get eco friendly from when we did the Japanese packaging task in class

Tape

I was surprised to find that there is tape that is eco friendly

Sellotape describes their eco-friendly tape making process:

The pulp is made using a process, which is elemental chlorine free and does not harm the environment. At the Sellotape factory, the hot melt coating technology we employ minimises the use of solvents. Any solvents that are used are processed through our Thermal Oxidiser and recycled with the resultant heat being used in our drying ovens.

The way tape is made seems to be why it is eco friendly, due to this I think string would be the best option between the two as string it can also be reused when it is finished.