This week , we learned about other product design considerations which is environmental sustainability. Sustainable design is the approach to creating products and services that have considered the environmental, social, and economic impacts from the initial phase through to the end of life. (i.e. its product life cycle).
Some Generic Design Considerations/Principles:
-Use non-toxic, sustainably produced, or recycled materials.
-Use energy efficient processes.
-Make product last longer.
-Design for reuse and recycling. (e.g. easy to disassemble)
-Consider product life cycle.
-Shift from personal ownership to shared ownership.
-Buy from nearby
So, how can we make the material to be environmental sustainability?
we can apply product life cycle so that the material can be reused after disposal in order to reduce the time it takes for materials to be exhausted and reducing the world's waste. Below is the product life cycle.
Product life cycle is similar to living things. For example,
·raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, distribution can be associate as birth
·growth can be associate as use
·death can be associate as disposal
Activity
In this activity, we were asked to construct a product life cycle of our chemical product which is air fryer and provide an explanation for each life cycle stage on the completed diagram.
Air fryer - Product Life Cycle
Raw materials: Plastic and metal
·The main ingredient in most plastic material is a derivative from crude oil and natural gas. Crude oil is typically obtained through drilling, where it is usually found alongside other resources, such as natural gas (which is lighter and therefore sits above the crude oil)
·Metal ores are extracted from the ground and refined to obtain metal from their oxides.’
Changes
·Biodegradable plastic is produced by petrochemicals.
·The metal are then processed to steel.
Manufacturing and processing
·Crude oil will undergo refining process so that it can be transform to different petroleum products. It will then undergo polymerization process. This process will convert light olefin gases such as ethylene, propylene, and butane into higher molecular weight hydrocarbon. Lastly, all various blends of materials are melt blended (mixed by melting) to make formulations for plastics. This process calls compounding.
·Metals are separated from their ores either by smelting or electrolysis. To create an alloy like stainless steel, a mixture of metals is melted together such as nickel, iron, chromium and many more. The melted metals are then molded into a perforated basket.
·The air fryer will then be made by combining the plastic and the perforated basket together.
Packaging
·Finished Air Fryer Products are packed according to their model.
·They are packaged into boxes made of cardboard and wrapped in plastic films.
Distribution
·Air Fryer products get transported to dealers/ distributors/ shops in many countries, ready to be sold to consumers.
·Air Fryers are kept in warehouses then retailed.
Use
·Air fryer use by the consumer.
·Air fryer can be used to preparing fried food without deep-frying and the use of oil.
Disposal
1. Reuse. Given to other people for free or sold off at a reduced cost.
2. Recycle. Air Fryers can be recovered and recycled for their metals to produce other products.
3. Disposal. It ends up at landfills or incinerators.
However, product life cycle are not really a real cycle. Most of our product life cycle fall into the Cradle-to-Grave product system. The raw material will be manufactured, used, and will be then go to landfills. Although a cradle-to-grave product system minimises the negative impact on the environment mostly by means of reducing, reusing and recycling but this method of recovery is not effective.
So, is there a better approach to product design???
The answer is yes. Let us introduce cradle-to-cradle design to you.
👉Cradle-to-cradle design
Cradle-to-Cradle Design, also known simply as C2C, is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that emulates nature's processes. The CC design concept is modelled based on nature. Basically, the cycle has no end point.
Principle of Cradle-to-cradle design:
1. nutrients become nutrients again
2. use of renewable energies
3. celebrate diversity
Some example of C2C-certified product is holonite zilver and bayonix® bottle
After we learn this C2Cdesign strategy, a new activity come.
Activity
In this activity, we need to integrate any two C2C design strategies into our chemical product which is air fryer (raw materials：plastic and metal) and update the product life cycle diagram.
⇨We could change the type of plastic used to produce the air fryer by using biodegradable plastic. Biodegradable plastic is made of renewable raw materials, micro-organisms, petrochemicals, or combinations of all three. It can be decomposed by the action of living organisms, usually microbes, into water, carbon dioxide, and biomass.
⇨We could use Steel for the metal of the air fryer. When the air fryer is disposed, steel can be recycling without loss of quality. Steel scrap from lower value can be converted into high value steels by using appropriate processing and metallurgy.
Reflection :
In this lesson, we learnt about product life cycle- manufacturing and processing, packaging, distribution, use and disposal. Applying this, it gave us a deeper understanding on an air fryer's life cycle and how one can be more sustainable. However, prior to application of the product life cycle, we had to research on the raw materials used to create an air fryer, then apply what we had learnt previously on substitution and changing the design of items to improve it. We were able to find a different way of plastic production to create a more sustainable product. We also learnt about the Cradle-to-Grave and Cradle-to-Cradle idea. Cradle-to-Grave means that the product is created, used, then disposed, never to be used again, while Cradle-to-Cradle means that even at the end of the product's life cycle, it can be reused again by breaking down the materials and repurposing them. This opens up a lot of rooms for saving the environment and redesigning products.
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