Discovery Phase
During the discovery phase, we used various methods to explore our problem which includes research, survey, interview with various stakeholders and brainstorming. Our initial idea was to focus on recycling but through our findings, we decided to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Research
We decided to research on the various methods of recycling, material properties, statistics on Singapore recycling rate did case studies as compared to other countries with high domestic recycling rates.
Findings
1) Policies are the main factors which results in high domenstic recycling rates as compared to other countries
2) Plastic and paper cannot be recycled infinitely
3) Construction debris are have 99% recycling rates while domestic recycling rate is 20% which shows that recycling can be enforced if there are enough incentives.
The intervew with NEA changed our focus from Recycling to Reducing!
Recycle
National Climate Change Competition 2016 (NCCC)
Empathy is the heart of design. We learnt to practice empathy through NCCC. In any design, we must make sure that it must have a personal-touch to the consumers and at the same time, it must be able influence and inspire consumers to change their behavior.
Survey + Interview
We surveyed and interviewed various stakeholders to understand the root-cause of our problem.
Findings
1) Reducing comes first, then reuse and recycle
2) Low back-end demand for recycled goods
3) Inconvenience is mainly the reason for not recycling
3) Limited by Singapore's infrastructure
Brainstorming
We explored ideas on reducing consumption and narrowed it down to the 3 respecitive ideas.
1) Zero Waste Supermarket
2) Portable and automated washing sytem utensils
3) Customizable wear-on