Class: Sustainable Materials
School: Savannah College of Art and Design
Year: Fall Quarter 2019
Purpose: Design a product from scratch or redesign one that was not originally designed with sustainable materials or end-of-life considerations in mind
Team project of 4 total people. I was personally responsible for the CAD models, Keyshot renderings, slogan, and some material research.
Team: Victoria Quinn, Abby Berezin, Sam Hartman
Brief: Pallets have a maximum use of about 100 trips before they begin to fall apart. In the United States alone, 1.9 billion pallets are used every year. 4.1-5.1 board feet of lumber which is about 20 million trees for pallet consumption.
Part 1: What if you were able to keep something forever?
Chosen Material: WOOTEX, a composite material made from the waste of clothing manufacturing and a bio-based resin. This material is stronger than wood with a similar price range and does not splinter. In addition, Wootex is also weather resistant and maintains the sanitary regulations similar to that of heat-treated wood.
Many more materials were looked into: agave plastic, orange peel plastic, wood polymer composite, and almond composite.
Joints, Design for Disassembly, Strong
What if you only had to replace a part when something breaks instead of the whole thing?
What if it was the same cost of the thing you are purchasing currently?
What if you cleaned-up and reduced the amount of waste in landfills today?
Part 2: What if you recieved a gift with every package you get?
1st Direction: IMac packaging sustainable packaging already exists in the IMac Pro version
Below are studies of the IMac packaging currently, new direction needed
2nd Direction: Packaging for USPS which has an internal system for pallets to connect with the first half of the project- perfect for our project
Polybag: Flaxco, a biodegradeable, flax fiber reinforced thermoplastic can replace oil-based plastics or fiberglass
Stiff Fins add stiffness and protection to the sides of the polybag
Box: Soft Rush, a biodegradeable, flowering plant in wetlands and marshes which grows rapidly, can be turned into noodle strings or compressed into blocks
White Sealing Strip: Biosteel, a biodegradeable, strong fiberous textile made from spider silk is incredibly strong and has many uses and many yet to be discovered
The packing slip has a stack of 10 slips and flips over the exterior of the box on the opposite side to create a seal between the two flaps. When ready to ship again, tear the previous packing slip off and use the next one in the stack, repeating the previous steps.
The boxes (project 2) stack onto the pallet (project1)
