How we designed our products for circularity
Circular design seems to be the new buzzword in the space of sustainability. Very simply put, what it means is designing the product, business model and everything else in a way in which it allows for sustainability and circularity. This in turn means at the end of the life of your product, the product can be easily and seamlessly brought back into the system with minimum waste of resources. This is a beautiful concept that encourages businesses and individuals to think about the life of their product from the very beginning of the product cycle. Unfortunately, all this while, we have had only linear business models which encourage the buy, use, dispose mentality that have put us into the dire situation that we are in today.
When I first began conceptualizing learning tools around sustainability for children for my brand Upcycler’s Lab, I was sure I wanted to incorporate principles of circularity into my product and eventually my business model. But seeing how we also wanted to use post consumer waste, this turned out to be a big challenge. This was primarily because, we were expecting people to take several actions to recycle the learning tools once they were done using them. We were also designing the product for an extremely short life (for example we made several one time use craft DIY projects), thereby encouraging fast consumerism. We realized that we had to make the process of recycling extremely easy for the consumer and we also had to design products that were more long lasting.
- The first idea we had was to create packaging and visiting cards in a format that they had a life after first use. Keeping this in mind, we designed our visiting card in such a way that the front had all our details and the back had a simple origami project through which the card could transform into a earphone holder. Of course, step one was to discourage people from taking the card altogether and taking an image of it instead, but if they did take one, we encouraged upcycling and made it very easy for the customer to do it.
- Step two was to create packaging that had a life after use. To do this, we designed a box made from 100% recycled corrugation that had flaps and holes built into it. These flaps could be unlocked to make the box fit into one another in the form of a small cupboard for kids. It also had a flap that became a pull out handle for the drawer. We included information on how to reuse the box on the packaging itself and communicated it further through a video.
- We also created a detailed blog post on how each of the materials used for the projects in the box could be reused, recycled or upcycled.
Despite doing the things above, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the product we had created. Like I said, it was still not built for ease of recycling and most of the projects, once completed, would end up in the trash can despite our information on reuse and recycling. Keeping this in mind, our team decided to create board games. A fun and effective way to deliver concepts, board games were long lasting, economical and created long term value for the customer. Moreover, after the child outgrew it, the game could be donated. We made the entire game from recycled paper and provided information on how the game could be taken apart for further recycling once it was used. Thus, we gave the customer an easy option to either donate or recycle the game. Since it was made from paper, pretty much anyone using our game anywhere in the world could recycle it easily and quickly.
These small steps above are ones that can be implemented by both small and large businesses. Many business owners feel that integrating circularity into the business model or product is tough, time consuming and expensive. However, I feel circular design can be made up of simple, small steps that can make big impact. With the increase in conscious consumers, circular design is something that can allow businesses to engage deeper with their customers and it is something that will pay for itself in the long run. It not only makes good environment sense but also makes good economic sense. When you make long lasting products and provide ways for them to be recycled either by integrating them back into your supply chain or by ensuring that they reach the recycling chain ethically, it creates brand loyalty. It can also give you a great competitive edge and allow you to use waste generated by your business as a material which would further reduce costs in the long run.
Of course circular design is still very nascent and we as an organization do not have all the answers, but we have taken the first steps and the intent exists. That’s all businesses need to start with. All the onus of sustainability should not be on CSR and consumers alone, it is important to weave these principles into the ethos of the business itself.
