case. Floss. Redesign. Process Manual
Design for Sustainability Objective: to choose a consumer product and redesign it with the concepts of sustainability in mind. An attempt to go beyond a “sustainable� solution to one that enables restoration in one or more declining natural systems. A Life Cycle Assessment (Okala Impact Factors) is performed on the existing product to evaluate it for environmental impact. The evaluation is served as a point of departure for redesign towards a more sustainable solution.
Bug List Before arriving at the floss product, I wrote down 100 bugs to narrow down which products I wanted to do.
1. plastic bags are thrown away once groceries are taken out . 2. it always takes a long time to open the packages for toothbrushes - wastes paper 3. really wasteful how the floss package (box used to hold floss) is immediately thrown away after you’ve used up all the floss 4. plastic bags break too easily, not durable at all 5. annoying how some pens are rendered useless when they drop on the floor 6. lightbulbs use too much electricity, doesn’t save energy at all 7. the lids on the paper coffee cup don’t really help keep drink from spilling 8. annoying when you can’t get the shampoo out of the shampoo bottle 9. really hard to get ice cubes out of the ice tray, not easy to use 11. annoying how as you use the ipad the battery life decreases 12. lead in mechanical pencils break too easily, always having to replace the lead 13. people are always losing erasers and usually they aren’t even used halfway 14. the lead in the wooden pencils break too easily, and can be harmful 15. the razors for shaving dull too quickly, not for long-term usage 16. bristles on the toothbrush can be rough and hurt the gums in mouth 17. soap bars break easily if they are dropped onto the floor, hard to use once it breaks 18. annoying how people just throw the take-out boxes on the road, those things do disintegrate 19. when knives become dull they are thrown away even though they can be sharpened 20. sometimes the shampoo gets stuck because of dried up shampoo stick at the opening
21. rubber bands are hard to spot and find after use 22. even though paper towels are reusable, they’re still not as strong as they say in commercials 23. the battery in phones seem to be expand after a while, which is scary 24. umbrellas are thrown away after they bend, people don’t try fixing it 25. sponges smell really bad after they’re used for a long period of time 26. the blue bristles on toothbrushes don’t really help tell you when to change your toothbrush 27. openings on soda cans can cut you if you’re not carefull when drinking from it 28. hearing aids are so small that you can’t find them if you take them out 29. earplugs are not that comfortable and are wasted once its used around 3-4 times 30. although velcro is a great invention, the sound that it makes when it’s open is really loud
31. the packaging for duracell batteries is really hard to open and keep the batteries you don’t need in it 32. the bristles on the hair brush always fall off after it becomes old, it’s annoying 33. the rubber used to keep the brushe’s bristle in place also cracks as well 34. staples are always really hard to get out of their packaging 35. the tape gets dirty at one part when it’s on the tape holder, when this happens you have to throw it away 36. the stapler can get stuck at times, and can’t be opened 37. cutting boards are too easily scratched, causing people to buy news ones 38. folders are hard to use when the papers don’t stay in place and get folded 39. glasses (like sunglasses) break too easily when they fall, not really durable 40. shoelaces are really useless on shoes
53. the adhesive on post-it notes aren’t that sticky 54. annoying how you need to replace the xacto knives when they’re dull 55. it’s frustrating to always lose the cap on the plastic water bottles 56. really loud when you accidentally press on the bottles as well 57. the plastic on the strings of hoodies fall off too easily 58. paper coffee cups topple over too easily 59. nail polish brushes can be really hard to use, doesn’t make the polish smooth at times 60. the lever used to lower office chairs can get broken easily and can’t be fixed 61. mirros get dirty too easily especially if you accidentally touch it with your fingers 62. the use of cotton for hail polish is wasteful, should use cltoh instead 63. annoying how nail polish remover uses alcohol 64. the plastic cups Starbucks use should be together, as in the lid connects with the cup 65. nail polish is really harmful and smells really bad; toxic and can harm your nails 66. the material lipstick is made of harmful materials
41.the wires on mouses get chewed up easily by animals, really fragile and eco-friendly 42. the steel spiral on the notebooks can get tangled up, if that happens it’s really hard to open the notebook 43. zippers get broken easily, makes it hard to zip it up 44. if the key ring is pulled on too much it opens making it hard to keep keys in place 45. the dustpans sometimes don’t pick up the dirt, especially on uneven ground 46. key rings are also hard to take out if you put then on your backpack. 47. the metal string used for necklaces is hard to open and close 48. nail polish remover smells really bad even though it says it’s scented 49. annoying how you can’t mess up when taking pictures with polaroid camera 50. shoes get dirty too easily, making hard to wash 51. the cone used to put on your pet’s head to prevent it from licking/scratching, is really hard to use 52. erasers create too much shreds when you use them
67.annoying how white-out liquid smells really bad when people use it and they don’t close it immediately 68. annoying how people 69. straws should connect to the cups, because people always mis-throw the straws into the trash can 70. many people allways throw away pieces of tape even though it’s still usable 71. aluminum cans are always thrown away in the wrong area when recycling 72. the numbers on plastic products are always disregarded by people 73. because of this people never really know which product goes into which recycling area 74. the styrofoam used in packaging always produces a really loud sound, and are thrown away 75. the bubble wrap are only used for entertainment -> “to step on and have fun” 76. can’t actually recycle a pencil or pen, people throw it away instead 77. the paper on erasers is a waste of paper, people usually take them off 78. the ziploc sandwich bags are always (almost) used once 79. paper towel gets is used once as well, even though it can be reused 80. brushes are thrown away even when the materials can be recycled 81. the packaging for the small protable tissues are usually taken off, not much use 82. annoying how blades rust even though they’re still usable, and then people throw it away 83. the tea bags aren’t reausable even though they should be 84. annoying how hair bands break so easily, not durable enough 85. annoying paintbrushes get too damaged when used in the wrong way 86. toilet scrubs are really hard to use and people don’t use it correctly 87. things like febreeze are always thrown away even though it’s not finished 88. the yogurt packaging isn’t a good design, people never finish eating ALL the yogurt 89. mason jars used for jam and pasta are really hard to use when there’s little sauce left
90. ketchup packets are really hard to tear open, and dont get all ketchup out 91. toothposte tubes become hard to use when you’re almost done 92. the dried liquid that gets stuck at the opening on shampoo bottle is wasteful 93. earphones are thrown away when they’re broken, and can’t be recycled 94. annoying how seran wrap is not reused when you can 95. the caps on bottles that have spray are lost easily 96. annoying how batteries leak chemicals over a long period of time 97. annoying how lint roller get dirty even though you haven’t used it 98. also annoying how you have rip the paper off the lint rollers to use another one 99. annoying how you can’t disassemble the lint roller 100. don’t like how there is plastic for toilet freshners
Here is my brainstorm of some of the products I had in my bug list.
Here are some ideas that I had drawn to see if Ithey could work.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In the end, I went with dental floss. I thought it was a product that really needed so redesigning. The floss itself is made from nylon which is n’t biodegradable. It’s also made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which there has been an uproar over the chemical it uses called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). In addition, the floss holder itself is made from plastic as well and is thrown away once there is no more floss. This sort of action is really wasteful, why not just re-use the holder itself and just buy the floss?
To create a better solution to this, I performed a life cycle assessment (LCA) on my product, which is shown on the next page.
Lifetime, functional unit & system boundary lifetime: 87*2 minutes = 174 minutes = 2.9 hours (4 and about 1/4 floss used per year) Functional unit: impacts/ hour System Boundary: excludes transport
Materials Product Materials:
Nylon 6
0.011 lb.
Polypropylene:
0.0242 lb.
Steel
0.0011 lb.
Manufacturing:
Injection Mold pp 0.0242 lb.
Disposal:
Landfill
Calculated Estimated Impacts Input
Amount x Okala factor =
Impact
Nylon 6
0.011
3.8
0.0418
Polypropylene
0.0242
1.9
0.04598
Steel
0.0011
3.5
0.00385
Injection Mold
0.0242
0.72
0.017424
Landfilll Polypropylene
0.0242
26
0.6292
Landfill Steel
0.0011
2.0
0.0022
Total Impacts/ life 0.74
Total: 0.698654
x 1/2.9 =
0.2552 Okala points/hour used
After performing the LCA I decided to research about the history of Oral-B dental floss, and the alternatives I could use for the materials., while keeping the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel in mind. Some facts I found interesting was that silk was used as floss. It was created by a New Orleans dentist in 1815 who had began advising his patients to use thin silk to clean between their teeth. Since this was the first material to be used, why not go back to the roots and use this instead? Another interesting fact was the Apaches, a Native American group originally from Southern US, used Yucca Eleta fibers, a perennial plant commonly known as soaptree, to make their floss. That’s pretty smart! Since plants are biodegradable, this is a great way to make floss as opposed to using nylon which isn’t biodegradable. Speaking of which, you could also use the long silky hair of the North American Milkweed seed. It could be twisted and made into dental floss, pretty nifty.
North American Milkweed
Yucca Eleta
Another important fact to note is floss uses a chemical called Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), more commonly known as Teflon. You know, the chemical used to make pans “non-sticky”? These chemical’s particles never, ever breakdown. Imagine if this ends up in our water, or scarier, our drinking water. There’s more to this: floss also uses synthetic wax which is made from petroluem. It’s kind of scary, so instead of synthetic wax why not use vegetable wax or paraffin wax, the stuff used to make chocalate all glossy and pretty. And another alternative could be bee’s wax. As for the floss’s case I found it weird how the cases weren’t reusable. If the case was reusable, the only thing you would need to buy is the floss itself. You would just buy a roll of floss and insert it into the case. One way to solve this problem would be reusing the original Oral-B container. In this scenario, the public would just buy the case with one pack of floss already included, and when they want need to refill they’d just by rolls of floss itself. By doing so, it would lessen the use of polypropylene in the container’s production. Another way around this problem is to create the case out of steel, which lasts much longer than plastic cases. Whereas plastics cases last 1 year, in comparison steel cases would probably last around 5 years or even more.
Paraffin wax
Here are some other ideas I had thought of and had drawn out. (some of the ideas are the same as the ones from previous pages)
3 strongest concepts.
Lifetime, functional unit & system boundary lifetime: 87*2 minutes = 174 minutes = 2.9 hours Functional unit: impacts/ hour System Boundary: excludes transport
Total Impacts/ life
Materials Product Materials:
Bio textile
0.011 lb.
Steel
0.0011 lb.
Manufacturing:
Injection Mold pp
0.0242 lb.
Disposal:
Landfill
0.2 x 1/2.9 =
Calculated Estimated Impacts Input
Amount x Okala factor =
Impact
Bio Textile
0.011
0.0418
Steel
0.0253
3.5
0.08855
Injection Mold
0.0242
0.72
0.018216
Landfill Steel
0.0253
2.0
0.0506
3.8
Total:
0.0690 Okala points/hour used
Looking at the design from a natural system perspective, it’s function in society is pretty important in that it helps maintain healthy teeth for the public. It helps people fulfill needs in that they can prevent getting cavities and other oral problems. Furthermore, it helps saves them money when they’re at the dentist. This is because you’ll need to pay more money when you need to take cavities and take care of other oral problems.
0.199166
Natural System Perspective.
Viewing at a Systems-Level. When viewing the final design at a systems-level, my design can help enhance natural systems in that whenever the floss is disposed (since it’s made out of plant fibers) it can go into compost and become fertilizer for other plants. This creates a cycle where the materials are returned to Earth. This design also sets up another cycle where new plants are planted when the materials needed for floss is collected by the manufacturer. By doing so, this will help retain the number of plants at a certain number. Furthermore, by planting these plants for the manufacturer it will help create more oxygen which will can help fix carbon.
Kathy Chang UC Davis | Design 127a, Fall 2014