First Week Back!

Deciding on the topic for my honours project has not been a simple one decision. I spent the summer brainstorming ideas, yet nothing really inspired me. Coming back blank paged into my last year at university, I spent my first week talking to my lecturers and peers about possible areas that I feel passionate about.

After long periods of brainstorming I realised, that for me the most intriguing aspect of design is “problem solving”. With all my projects so far, I have concentrated on designing something meaningful und useful. I value designs that try to tackle a problem in society, instead of just redesign something with the mere purpose of an aesthetic change. I’ve always been mindful of my surroundings, looking at sustainable designing, using environmentally friendly materials and being careful about the creation of waste products.

It is a known fact that the amount of waste has immensely grown over the past century. We are putting too much waste products out, but not making sure it is sustainably recycled. One of the biggest problems is our plastic waste. Getting rid of all the plastic packaging and products is not at all easy, so most of it ends up in the ocean. This is causing crucial issues for the marine life.

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-animals-wildlife-impact-waste-pollution/

Everyone has seen the images of animals getting stuck in plastic waste, wrapping around their bodies and deforming them into unnatural shapes. Marine living organisms are also consuming the plastics in the ocean, which causes starvation and leads to extinction of many sea life animals. Additionally, the toxins that are released by the plastic can lead to infertility and risk of disease. That got me thinking. What are we as society doing to create a long-awaited solution to this dangerous problem with waste?

While this issue is something we are all aware of, there is only little that is actually been done to try and reduce the waste within the bodies of water surrounding us. While I tried to find projects that reduced the waste in the ocean I could hardly find any projects. There are two “major” projects that I could find: The Ocean Cleanup (www.theoceancleanup.com) and 4Oceans (www.4ocean.com). The Ocean Cleanup has built a product that collects plastic out of the ocean and aims to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 4Oceans sell mainly bracelets that are made out of 100% recycled materials. The profits are then used to finance their own ocean clean ups, thus creating a loop of getting rid of plastic waste and finding a way to reuse it. The other projects that I could find are mainly school projects and not actually implemented.

Therefore, I’ve been thinking about possibly designing something that can reduce the plastic waste in the water. As of yet, this topic is still very broad, so I am hoping to narrow this down within the next week. Thereby developing a more specific idea for my honours design project.