Design For America, Plastic Film Waste

This project aims to find solutions to help citizens recycle plastic films more responsibly in their local communities.

Setting

Passion Project @ Design For America Illinois

Role

Design Researcher

Timeline

Sept 2019 - Dec 2019

Location

Champaign, IL

Overview

Recycle plastic films responsibly

This project aims to find solutions to help citizens recycle plastic films more responsibly in their local communities. The goal is to influence social behaviors to provide grocery shoppers with awareness to conveniently and consistently make the right recycling decisions.

Problem Space

Although plastic film waste such as grocery bags and packaging cannot be recycled as other plastic products, a large number of consumers are generally unfamiliar with plastic film recycling protocol.

Process

Literature Review - Experts Interview - Survey - Synthesize

Process

Research

In the first two months, our team focused on getting a better understanding about existing solutions for recycling plastic film waste and the current level of citizen's awareness on the recycling protocols.

Early Insights
1. Impractical to completely eliminate plastic film usage in the community.
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‍"According to PlasticsEurope, 7.7 million tons of plastics were recycled globally in 2013, including greater than 3.5 million tons of post-industrial and post-consumer plastic scrap in the U.S., according to ISRI estimates."

- Rick Leblanc, Plastic Recycling Facts and Figures

source: the balance small business
2. Champaign-Urbana consumers generally unfamiliar with plast

“People do ask about where to recycle bags, about 2-3 people each week;” but when asked about what happens with the bags, County Market manager was “unsure about the details or where [they] go”

- Yamani, Store Associate at County Market

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3. Irresponsible management of recycled plastic film by the public recycling ‘stations’

“People mix in other trash with the plastics bags, so the person in the workroom will just throw it all in the dumpster”

-Yamani, Store Associate at County Market
Existing Solutions
Recycling programs (U-Cycle)
‍
‍“Operated by the City of Urbana Public Works Department under a cooperative agreement between the cities of Champaign and Urbana” [2019]. “No plastic film - Such as Ziploc bags, bread bags, newspaper sleeves, wrappers (chip bags, candy, fast food, etc)”

- City of Urbana, Acceptable Recyclables & Non-Acceptable Items
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source: City of Urbana Website
Champaign Public Works Department Recycling Program

“The City of Champaign encourages residents to utilize reusable bags whenever possible.  The City will even provide you with a free reusable canvas bag!  You can contact the City’s Environmental Sustainability Specialist for more details. However, if you have plastic bags that need to be recycled, it is best to return them to retail supermarkets that offer a Store Drop-Off Collection Bin”

- Public Works Department, Where do I recycle, donate, or dispose of it?

source: City of Champaign Website

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Community Partners & Mentors

Morgan White
Director of Sustainability at Facilities & Services (F&S), University of Illinois

Brajendra Kumar (BK) Sharma
Senior Research Scientist, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

Mapped Out Insights

1) Lack of sustainable policies on a collegiate, local or federal level

2) No accountability in place on either companies or customers

3) Limited awareness of available options or proper procedure on the customer's part

Define

Pivot Focus

After the considerate amount of research on grocery stores, our team pivoted the focus from the business units to people in order to grow more understanding about the current level of awareness on plastic film recycling. I believed this will help us to design the solutions later on.

Poll Data

An affinity map was created to identify high level themes and group similar insights gained from the user interviews.

See the survey form here.

Key Takeaways
01

Customers have limited awareness of available options or proper procedures

02

Social trends & behaviors are more influential than empirical knowledge or events

03

The recycling process-especially for plastic bags-is a hassle regardless of passion or motivation

Insights from the Second User Interviews

Based on the poll data, our team arranged the list of interview questions and conducted more interviews with individuals, rather than business units like we did previously.

1. Customers have limited awareness of available options or proper procedures
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‍“I don’t know where to recycle around my apartment. There’s literally just a dumpster out there.” (Jenny Kil, Student)

“Provide an answer to the questions [regarding] what people don’t know…communicate why plastic film matters. Negativity is demotivating.” (Morgan White, Community Partner)
2. Social trends & behaviors are more influential than empirical knowledge or events
“The most effective solution so far has been to ban the bags completely [in California].” (Anne Zulkarnain, Student)

“Some parts of anti-plastic movements are becoming a trend, like buying metal straws, and people catch on because of the trend. People aren’t not aware of how plastic affects the environment, they just don’t care because it doesn’t affect them.” (Kate Roethler, Student)

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3. The recycling process —especially for plastic bags — is a hassle regardless of passion or motivation

“We’re in the Plastic Film group and none of us actively recycle plastic film.” (Rajee Shah, Plastic Film Team Lead)

Next Step: Ideation

Design Pillars

With the user research our team conducted throughout the semester, we were able to conclude How Can We statement to narrow down the goal and design pillars.

Our new HCW statement:
How can we influence social behaviors to provide grocery shoppers with an awareness to conveniently and consistently make the right recycling decisions?

Due to the covid 19 situation, this project has been halted but it'll be continued as a form of virtual experience.

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Artifacts

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