idea: WWW - World Without Waste

November 29, 2008 in Business models / Systems Thinking, Innovation, Problem Solving, Sustainability by mbseven | No comments

Should we question the need to produce waste?

Waste isn’t a problem, it is a consequence of human decisions.

Or a design fault.

So imagine if you were asked to opt between paying for management of your waste, or pay for not having waste, which would you chose?

After many years of design research about waste issues, I shared my ideas with a fellow postgraduate researcher and design strategist from Brunel University, Nanako Kawauchi to further unerstand root problems of packaging waste, map current strategies and develop an holistic and innovative approach to this challenging issue. What we offered was a user-centred design futures approach, resulting in a conceptual model to design-out waste from packaging.

The next step started with sharing our vision of a future generation of packaging designed to be waste-free,

with multiple packaging stakeholders, from businesses and industry leaders to academia and packaging experts. Once validated by a pool of experts, and attracting the interest of businesses we started shapping such proposal into a strategy to create an intersection and disruptive innovation centre. The aim is to work with a multi-stakeholder and diverse-skill team to develop possible but unthinkable solutions of the future packaging industry.

How success looks like: this 10 year project outcomes will be a solution-driven toolkit combining new materials, new technologies, systems and new business models for zero-waste packaging. Imagine you will be on the business of bottled juice. Now imagine that you will continue to transport your juice, supply and support consumption, based on, for example an energy field pack, which once you have finished your juice, doesn’t exist anymore. How can this be done? well, this and many other solutions don’t have full answers, yet, but will be answered in 10 years time.

Want to know more? Why Not sign up bellow and share your ideas?
Want to discuss this idea? post your comment.maria.ana@londonynot.com