To begin designing this workshop, my team and I interviewed a representative from the state Department of Environmental Quality. During this conversation, we discovered that few manufactured goods are truly recyclable, and that even those which can be recycled are often contaminated and ultimately end up in landfills. This highlighted the fact that recycling is only effective for a small fraction of the global waste stream. We then spoke with the community director of the Raleigh branch of Toward Zero Waste, who emphasized that the responsibility for sustainable choices should not fall solely on consumers, but on corporations that mass-produce unsustainable and non-recyclable products. From these interviews, we identified two key areas for improving sustainability: reforming government policies and promoting thoughtful design practices.
After conducting our research, we started developing a workshop focused on educating designers about how to create for a circular economy. Unlike the linear economy, which starts with raw materials and ends with waste, the circular economy aims to "close the loop" by reintegrating most waste back into the production process through sorting and recycling. Achieving this system requires designing products and packaging with sustainable and recyclable materials from the outset.
We designed a workshop that places designers into small teams for rapid ideation sessions, where they are challenged to redesign an existing product or service to better align with the principles of the circular economy.
