Designing With Web - Part 3: week 1
Reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.
Group 125
- Nicolas Latapy: https://mm.tt/1668197945?t=Aak0I83Piu
- Clara Hubert: https://mm.tt/1670293662?t=QGQpcrU0jL
- Jakob Bonnefon: https://www.mindmeister.com/1668058268?t=4mSvu2zhDG
- Noémie Gobert: https://mm.tt/1660728942?t=EhFOdaJseJ
- Victor Richard: paste the link to your exploration here (make sure it is public)
Project 1: Programmed obsolescence
Context
In France, between 17 and 23 kg of electrical and electronic waste per inhabitant is produced each year, of which just over a quarter is collected and reused. In 1985, a computer had an average lifespan of 10.9 years. In 2000, it was barely 5 years. Between 2004 and 2013, the share of defective appliances replaced in the first 5 years almost doubled to 13%.
The programmed obsolescence appeared at the same time as the first
electronic devices. The principle is simple: the company that created
the product plans a limited life span of the product in order to
increase the frequency of replacement. Consequences : programmed
obsolescence feeds over-consumption as well as over-production. It
contributes to the increase of waste, the intensification of pollution
as well as the increase in the waste of raw materials and energy.
The company takes advantage of its capacity for innovation and its brand
effect to build customer loyalty and thus keep its customers in the
vicious circle of over-consumption.
This theme is interesting for our topic and responds to a prevention issue concerning the prevention and reduction of waste. Therefore, we thought of an application that would fight against this programmed obsolescence.
Target
This application has been designed to meet the needs of users suffering from programmed obsolescence. These are the users of electronic devices. We provide them with a beneficial service, which allows them to interact with a community and feed it. Thus, it creates a link between the users but also provides work for the repairers of electronic devices that will be solicited. It is therefore our two stakeholders: the users and the repairers.
Service offered
The principle is simple : when a device no longer works, the application allows the user to access repairers or life data of similar devices to optimise its replacement. In order to access these informations, the user will have to enter the lifespan of the defective product himself, so that all users can benefit from it.The price for repairs would be reduced because they are community members.
Identity
Benchmark
- Commentréparer.com - Website
- Murphy - Website
- Spareka - Website
- ProduitsDurables - Website
Commentréparer.com is a website for mutual aid between Internet users that allows people to repair all types of appliances (household appliances, audiovisual....) and fight against programmed obsolescence. Internet users can follow explanations on how to repair their objects but also ask questions on a forum. The links with our project are that this site also fights against programmed obsolescence and puts internet users in touch with each other. However, this site does not have an application and does not offer a link to repairers, which does not allow to repair all types of products.
Murfy is a start-up specialising in the repair of household appliances. Tutorials are free and available online on the site. Murfy also offers to hire a repairer for 75 €, if it is impossible or too risky to do the repair yourself. The link with our project is that this start-up offers repairers to customers if it is too complicated to repair the product yourself and fights against programmed obsolescence. However, there is no forum to exchange ideas and apply a preferential rate in exchange for an opinion and to be part of the community.
Spareka is a website which fights against programmed obsolescence by supplying all kinds of spare parts for household appliances. It provides specialists to search for and recommend spare parts. They also provide assistance in the repair of equipment and offer video tutorials. We also want to create a link between clients and specialists to help them expertise their problem and the best ways to fix it.
Produits Durables is a website which lists a wide range of products, from electronics to textiles, in order to compare their lifespan. The site rates products by stars, allowing the user to immediately identify which products are the most durable and which are the least. This website is a potential competitor to our application as we also want to compare products according to their lifespan. However, we also offer to put the user in contact with a repairer when his product is faulty.
References
Here are some references which helped us to gather information for our application.
- Sharing economy - Article
- Planned obsolescence: the outrage of our electronic waste mountain - Article
- Here’s the truth about the ‘planned obsolescence’ of tech - Article
- This a short video that has taught us precisely what planned obsolescence is and which describes some initiatives taken to counter it. - Video
Sharing economy allows people to exchange tangible and intangible with one another. It aims to produce value together. There are fewer intermediaries than in a traditional business and consumers are stakeholders in this economy. The economy of sharing is generally done via internet networking platforms. These marketplaces are there to act as an intermediary between the interlocutors and to create common value while providing a framework for exchanges.
This article speaks about planned obsolescence and its effects on our daily lives. It says that some of the world’s biggest companies have been selling us products either knowing full well that they will only last a couple of years, or having deliberately built a short lifespan into the itemor its software. However, action is being taken to combat this phenomenon. For example, a campaign "Right to Repair" which is an American public research group that fights against it, or Apple which has paid back money because updates would have slowed down some iPhones. This article shows us that planned obsolescence is a major issue and is a problem for many products.
This article relativises the concept of programmed obsolescence by indicating whether products have a limited lifespan, also because consumer tastes are constantly changing. Companies therefore do not waste money and time designing products that last longer, since the consumer would change them anyway.
Project 2 : Waste collection
Context
89% of French people sort their packaging, of which only 51% do so systematically. Unsorted packaging then goes to incineration, creating pollution, whereas by being recycled it can be reused. This figure shows that there is considerable scope for increasing the share of consumers who systematically sort their waste. This is why we decided to create an application to encourage consumers to sort their waste more often and to make sorting management easier for users, supermarkets and municipalities, by collecting packaging in supermarkets in exchange for vouchers.
Target
This service is aimed at all consumers since the project aims to collect waste directly from supermarkets. More specifically, the goal is to encourage consumers who do not sort their waste to do so more often. Each person shopping just has to download the application and bring back the products that can be sorted at the supermarkets. In exchange, the supermarket offers them a voucher (for example). The aim is then to target all consumers throughout the country.
Service offered
Each person must download the application and create a personal account. When a user buys a product and consumes it, he can then take its packaging back to the supermarket. The supermarket will beep the products and offer a voucher directly to the consumer. It is on each consumer's personal account that the exchange will take place and that he will receive the voucher.
It is in the consumer's interest to do so because he gains advantages (vouchers) and the supermarket sees a certain interest in it because it will push the consumer to consume within its brand.
Identity
Benchmark
- Cliiink - Website
- Easytri - Website
- RECONCIL - Website
- Rebooteille - Website
Cliiink is a website and mobile application that encourages consumers to recycle their waste. It works with a system of "smart" containers, to which the customer has to connect with his mobile phone. The system is able to identify the waste introduced into the container. The more the customer sorts, the more points he will be remunerated with. He can then exchange his points with an offer that he can find on the website or the application. They are a potential competitor to our project because they also use a reward system to encourage the user to sort his waste.
Easytri offers administrations, local authorities and companies innovative solutions for the management of corporate waste. They implement sorting tools, after an audit of the client's needs. They also take care of the regular collection, sorting, recycling and recovery of this waste. Although they aren't a direct competitor, the study of their functioning teaches us to apprehend how waste sorting works and how it is organised.
RECONCIL is a returnable and reusable packaging service. The company provides an industrial washing service and then rents reusable containers. They handle all types of food containers whether they are made of glass, ceramic, plastic or stainless steel. This company is intended for professionals and not for everyday consumers, but it is interesting to study it for our service. In fact, like us, this company is implementing a system of reuse of packaging, not by recycling it but by washing it. We can therefore learn how to attract customers who may want to avoid having a negative impact through their consumption.
Rebooteille offers a solution to beverage producers including the collection of dirty bottles, washing and redistribution to producers. It also offers a deposit system for the consumer, the latter which can buy a bottle bearing the label of the company from one of the partner retailers. He can then take it back to the place of purchase or to another partner shop, and get the deposit money. The study of this company is interesting for our service because it is the bottle deposit system that inspired our project. It shows how a company operates in this activity and how it attracts a certain category of customers likely to participate in a deposit system.
References
- How to Germany: All about recycling in Germany - Article
- European Environment agency: Waste generation - Article
- How to improve waste sorting and recycling - Article
- What You Can Do to Fight Plastic Pollution - Article
This article explains how Germany manages its waste generation. Germany is a very advanced country in the recycling system: we inspired ourselves from deposit on bottles in German supermarkets. The principle is to earn money every time someone brings back a bottle with a deposit in a supermarket. This encourages everyone to pick up their own or other people's waste.
This article helps us realize that waste generation is a serious problem we should all be concerned about. It gives us a global view of the current state of waste in europe and the measures that are being taken to limit it. As we can read in this article, France is a country in which some projects are already implemented to fight against waste generation. Supermarkets are already involved into it but more as a restriction than a will. Our project can then mark the willingness of supermarkets to become voluntarily involved in this collection and to prove their concern in this fight.
This article underlines the importance of sorting waste at source. Sorting mixed waste is not only technically but also economically very difficult while sorting waste at source facilitates the treatment and improves the quality of the material that is recycled. Sorting waste at source must therefore be encouraged, this is what we are trying to do with our application.
This article gives advice to consumers on how to reduce their consumption of plastics. It advises to recycle when the plastic is recyclable, to refuse to use plastic each time it is avoidable and to repair as much as possible instead of buying a replacement of the damaged product. Not all plastics can be recycled, so consumers need to pay attention when sorting them. It also gives recommendations to prevent the consumption of plastic, i.e. by advising to buy products packaged in natural materials.