Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mrs. Dhami.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson today.

Now, the big question for today is, how can designers encourage users to repair, maintain, and recycle their designs so that we as an economy produce less waste? So we're gonna explore this together.

Hard hats on.

Let's get cracking.

Our outcome for today is we will be able to explore how the repair, maintenance, and recycling of products can be encouraged.

We have five key words today: maintenance, which is regular care and small fixes to keep a product working properly and lasting longer; obsolete, when a product is no longer used or useful; design decisions is a deliberate choice to make a requirement or solve a problem; circular economy is where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste or become minimal waste; and lastly, modular design.

That's a design approach where a product is made up of separate, interchangeable parts or modules.

We have two learning cycles today.

Firstly, we're going to explore repair, maintenance, and recycling.

And then we're going to go on to investigate some products that reflect these three things.

So let's start off with repair, maintenance, and recycling.

A product's lifecycle can be defined as cradle to grave.

Cradle, meaning when the idea of the product is born; grave, meaning when the product goes to waste.

Let's follow the product's lifecycle when it's cradle to grave.

We start off with raw materials.

We move to design.

We then move to manufacture and materials processing, onto distribution, onto product in use, and then the disposal of the product.

This is described as a linear process with a starting point, cradle, and an ending point, grave.

Products that follow a linear lifecycle tend to become obsolete.

That's when they're no longer used or useful.

So products that follow a linear lifecycle tend to become obsolete, being thrown away after use, such as disposable nappies or fashion items. Jacob says, "Why do people tend to throw away products rather than repair, maintain, or recycle them?" Great question, Jacob.

Sometimes it's cheaper or easier to buy a new one.

Sometimes people have a lack of time to be able to repair or maintain.

Sometimes there is a lack of spare parts or tools.

Sometimes spare parts are no longer produced.

Sometimes people have a limited knowledge or skill, and sometimes it is down to the design being poor.

So the responsibility for repair, maintenance, and recycling does not lie just with the user.

Design decisions can affect how easy something is to repair, maintain, or recycle and can influence whether it is or isn't.

Designers are attempting to move away from the linear approach, defined as cradle to grave, and move towards a circular approach, defined as cradle to cradle or circular economy.

Notice how the grave has been taken out and replaced with cradle, meaning it goes around in that circle.

The circular economy can be defined as an economic system where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste or become very minimal waste.

At the repair and maintenance and recycling stages, design decisions to reduce the environmental impact are usually made during the design or redesign stage.

This just shows how important the role of a designer is in impacting so many of the stages within the circular economy.

Quick check-in: This diagram on the right represents, A, circular economy; B, cradle to grave; C, cradle to cradle; or D, linear economy.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you've got A and C.

The diagram not only represents circular economy, but we also said it can be referred to as cradle to cradle, and that's why we have the word redesigning.

We start at design.

We move all the way back around to redesign again.

It moves in a circular formation.

Design decisions to stop products becoming obsolete include modular design; use of replaceable standard components; ability to be disassembled for repair or separating of materials; charging ports or accessible batteries; material choices, combinations, or labelling; repair manuals or videos; and adhering to laws or regulations.

Now, I've whizzed through those quite quickly, but we're going to spend a bit of time over the next few slides going into these individually in a bit more detail.

These decisions may be through the result of a life cycle assessment, LCA.

LCA is where the environmental impact is assessed at every single stage of the product's lifecycle with the aim to then reduce the impact.

Let's start off by looking at modular design.

Now, modular design is one of our key words for today.

So let's remind ourselves of the meaning.

Modular design is a design approach where a product is made up of separate interchangeable parts or modules.

Now, Kibu do modular design perfectly.

So Kibu design headphones with lots of 3D-printed parts, and one of their selling features is that their headphones can be built by children, but not only that, they can be easily disassembled and then repaired by children too.

With every single part being replaceable, it means that the headphones do not need to be thrown away if a small part breaks.

Instead, they can be repaired and maintained.

What a wonderful design.

Using standard components is a great way of enabling a product to be repaired and maintained because then people do not have to go out and look for a specialist part.

So standard components include things such as knockdown fittings or standard components like nuts and bolts and screws.

Now, some companies provide help-yourself stations for small parts that may have been broken, and you can see that picture on the right-hand side.

That might be somewhere that you recognise.

It's a place that sells lots of furniture, lots of flat-pack furniture, and if you are missing a part or perhaps a part is broken, you can go and help yourself.

What a great idea for encouraging repair and maintenance.

Let's move on to charging ports and accessible batteries.

So let's start with charging ports.

Enabling charging ports in a product reduces the need for disposable batteries.

Therefore, it minimises chemical waste and disposal because you can just plug in and recharge.

And that's the little nightlight that we have in our hallway.

Next one are accessible replaceable batteries.

This is a book that I bought for my children.

And the first time I bought it, the batteries were not accessible, and I had to buy the product again because my kids loved it that much.

The second time I bought it, the batteries were accessible.

Design decisions had been made to improve that product, which is great for me, meant I could change the batteries every time they ran out, therefore encouraging me to repair and maintain products.

Let's consider repair manuals and videos.

Now, I'm sure if you looked at an item of your clothing, you will find a washing instruction label on it, and that label will tell you what temperature to wash your clothes on so that you do not shrink your fabrics and you look after your fabrics to maintain them to their best condition.

So lots of labels provide those instructions.

Some companies also provide videos.

Now, I thought I'd make my own.

Here's me taking off part of my vacuum cleaner.

Now, notice what I am using to take it off.

It's not at tool, no.

It's not a specialist tool.

All it is is a coin.

And some companies are designing their products to be able to be fixed using things such as coins rather than specialist tools to make it easier for customers and give them no excuse not to repair and maintain themselves.

What a great idea.

Onto material choices, combinations, and labelling.

So let's start off with material combinations.

Some materials are very difficult to recycle, such as laminated materials.

And you can see I've cut open a juice carton there.

You can see it is a laminated material and it is very difficult to recycle because you can't separate the two materials.

Next one is labelling.

I'm sure if you pick up a shampoo bottle or a milk bottle, if you turn it upside down, you are likely to see the recycling triangle.

Have a little look next time you've got a plastic bottle in front of you.

You can see the bottom of this one has got a number two.

It stands for HDPE, high-density polyethylene.

Now, that clear labelling enables us as users to be able to recycle them in the right place and make good sustainable, (stammers) sustainable decisions of how to recycle them.

Now, at our school, we collect all of the HDPE number two bottle tops, and what we do is we melt them down and we turn them into new HDPE sheets.

Without that labelling, we wouldn't know which one's HDPE, and we might melt a wrong plastic, which could cause dangerous fumes.

Sometimes people don't repair or maintain because they haven't got the knowledge or the skill about what to do.

Therefore, the ability to take apart products enables them to be recycled or upcycled if you know what you're doing.

However, there is a real rise in the trend to mend.

What a lovely phrase.

There's a rise in the trend to mend with repair shops, community groups, cafes, makerspaces, initiatives, allowing access to tools and expertise for users to fix their own products rather than them going to landfill.

And here's some lovely pictures of my own son who is recycling, well, upcycling his bed and his sister's cot into a potion station.

And he had great fun making that.

I wonder what you guys do for upcycling.

Which of the following is a design decision that helps prevent a product from becoming obsolete? A, using custom components.

B, designing products with sealed, non-repairable parts.

C, creating modular designs with replaceable parts.

Or D, glueing all components permanently together.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you got C.

Creating modular designs with replaceable parts stops products from becoming obsolete.

Sustainability has grown and is growing in popularity, leading designers to make design decisions that encourage reusing or passing on products rather than throwing them away.

And you can see the label in my daughter's coat.

It says name, name, name, and then please pass on when you are done.

That encourages people to pass on the clothes rather than sending them to landfill.

This is also seen in the rise of apps and websites for sharing or buying secondhand items, and you might have had a go at that yourselves.

There are also laws that, of course, designers and companies must follow too.

So for example, with batteries, batteries contain harmful chemicals that can pollute the environment.

The WEEE Directive, standing for waste, electrical, and electronic equipment, is a European regulation aimed at reducing electronic waste and shape design decisions for designers.

It states that batteries must be recycled.

Manufacturers are responsible for collecting and safely disposing of batteries, and consumers can return used batteries to collection points for recycling.

And if you take a little look at that picture at the top, you might have seen these in supermarkets and shops where you are encouraged to pop your batteries into there to be recycled correctly rather than putting them in the waste bins.

Onto task A, part one.

I'd like you to identify two reasons why some people choose to throw away products rather than repair and maintain them.

Part two, I'd like you to explain two decisions that can reduce environmental impact at the repair and maintenance stage of the circular economy.

And part three, I'd like you to do the same, explain two decisions that can reduce environmental impact, but this time at the recycling stage of the circular economy.

Good luck.

Come back to me when you've got some answers.

Part one, reasons people choose to throw away products rather than repair or maintain.

Sometimes it's cheaper or easier to buy a new one.

Sometimes people have a lack of time or lack of spare parts or tools or limited knowledge or skill.

And sometimes it actually comes down to a poor design.

Part two, designers can choose to use common fixings and components that are easy to find and replace.

This makes it easier to repair the product instead of throwing it away.

Designers can also create products with parts that can be removed and replaced separately.

So if one part breaks, it can be swapped out without needing to replace the whole product, meaning that it does not become obsolete.

And remember Kibu was a lovely example with their designs for headphones for this.

Part three, focused on design decisions to encourage recycling.

So designers can choose to make a product from one type of material such as all polymer or all metal.

This makes recycling easier because the product doesn't need to be separated into different or separate parts.

Another reason could be adding labels or symbols to show what materials are, which then enables users to make the correct decisions about how to recycle each part, just like me and my school collecting all the HDPE bottle tops so that we can make our own sheets and new products.

Well done with your answers.

Onto learning cycle two: investigation.

Time to delve into developing countries.

The developed world can often learn from developing countries when it comes to their strong culture of repair, maintenance, and recycling.

Many people believe that waste is linked to wealth.

Take a minute now, I'd like you to discuss that statement with the person sat next to you, or tell me what you think about that.

Come back to me when you've had a discussion.

Okay, let's draw us together again.

In developing countries, waste is often seen as a useful material, unlike developed countries, with lots of entrepreneurs turning into new products, such as chairs made from upcycled tyres, rather than letting it go to waste.

In developing countries, people have a long history of fixing, maintaining, and reusing things because they often need to make the most of what they have and be self-sufficient.

Developing countries often have markets and high streets full of stalls offering repair services, and this was a man that I met on my travels in India who was repairing shoes as a market stall.

It is a common misconception that recycling does not happen in developing countries.

When I was on my travels in India, I saw lots and lots of signs all about recycling.

And if you look closely at the middle picture, what can you see in the middle of there? Take a minute, come back to me when you've got an idea.

Hopefully you noticed that there are lots and lots of plastics there in that picture.

This was one of many polymer collections at places in India that I saw.

This is a picture of a person that I met on my travels.

I was drinking some water from a bottle, and after I finished, he asked whether he could take that bottle.

And he showed me where he was putting them.

He was collecting all of this polymer waste.

And he said that if he could fill three of those bags in a day, then he would be able to get enough money to feed all of his family for that day.

Therefore, as I've written, many people from low-income communities collect polymer waste to earn money.

They sell the collected polymers, just like this man, such as plastic bottles, wrappers, and bags to recycling centres or intermediaries for a small profit.

This work provides a basic income for millions of informal waste-pickers.

What is one way people in low-income communities earn money through polymer waste? A, burn the polymers to generate energy.

B, bury the waste to create compost.

C, sell the polymers to recycling centres or intermediaries.

Or D, donate it to schools for educational projects.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you've got C.

A way to generate income can be to sell the polymers to recycling centres or intermediaries.

Take a look at this photo that I took of one of the beaches in Mumbai.

Have a think.

What are the children doing, and what is inside that bag? Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Hopefully you notice that these children are collecting something.

And if we look closely at that bag, that bag is full, full of polymers.

These children are not lying down, playing on the beach, relaxing.

This beach is where they are collecting discarded polymers instead of attending school.

For some families, just like the man before, if enough polymers are gathered in a day, they can be exchanged for a small amount of money, sometimes just enough to afford an evening meal.

In many developing countries, children are often expected to work during the day to help support their families.

If they have the opportunity to attend school, it is usually at night after the day's work is done.

Lessons are sometimes held by candlelight as electricity can be too expensive or unavailable.

This creates a design opportunity.

And if we remind ourselves about the word design opportunity, that means there is a problem to be solved.

Daniel Sheridan, a student from Coventry University, responded to this design opportunity by developing solutions for generating electricity in remote areas.

His solution developed into the Energee-Saw, a seesaw that generates electricity through play.

What a fantastic idea.

Sheridan harnessed the up-and-down motion to drive a mechanical system connected to a generator, converting kinetic energy, moving energy, into electricity.

Sheridan calculated his creation, the Energee-Saw, could power classroom lighting for a whole evening with just 5 to 10 minutes of use, which I don't think was very difficult to get the children to play on something for 5 or 10 minutes.

This was so important as many pupils could only attend in evenings, using candle light to study.

He wanted to increase educational access by using sustainable energy.

The Energee-Saw is provided to communities in kit form, allowing communities to construct the main structure using locally-sourced materials like timber.

This therefore reduces transportation costs, which therefore reduces carbon emissions and has a better effect on the environment.

And it also encourages community involvement in the product and the energy.

The Energee-Saw went on to allow many communities in Uganda and Malawi to be able to power local schools so that students could study in the evenings and continue their education.

What an amazing impact and legacy to leave.

So how does the Energee-Saw link to the repair and maintenance stage in the circular economy? Well, Sheridan was absolutely adamant that he wanted local communities to be able to repair and maintain the Energee-Saw themselves.

So to ensure that this could happen, Sheridan provided community training, and you can see that in the pictures above.

A great feature of the Energee-Saw was that Sheridan ensured that his designed use standard components and tools so that no specialist parts or tools were required so that the Energee-Saw could be repaired and maintained.

He also provided them with easy-to-understand visual diagrams such as this exploded diagram so that they could easily repair and maintain them without having to read, but with that visual communication.

The Energee-Saw is such a great example of how design decisions made at the design stage can influence how easy a product is to repair and maintain and ultimately to reduce products becoming obsolete and turning into waste.

What a fabulous design by Daniel Sheridan.

The impact of design decisions for the Energee-Saw include, A, lighting and power for local communities; B, communities able to repair and maintain; C, income for informal waste-pickers; or D, increased access to education.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you've got A, B, and D.

The impact of design decisions for the Energee-Saw include lighting and power for local communities, communities able to repair and maintain themselves, and increased access to education.

What a wonderful product.

Onto task B.

Part one, I'd like you to identify existing products that are often thrown away when they break rather than being repaired or maintained.

Then part two, I'd like you to take one of those products that you have identified and redesign it so that it can be repaired or maintained.

And I would like you to use sketches and annotations to explain your wonderful ideas.

I look forward to seeing them very soon.

Part one, products that often break or are thrown away.

They could include school bags, as they often get holes in the corners, and quite often the zip breaks.

It's so annoying, isn't it, when that happens.

It could also be school chairs.

Legs are frequently bent out of shape.

And it could be kettles.

Often the heating element breaks.

Perhaps you came up with some of these, but I'm sure you probably came up with lots of wonderful other examples too.

It's amazing how many there are, isn't it? Part two, I asked you to redesign one of those products that you identified.

So Izzy had a go.

Izzy identified that the base of school bags often wear out, so she sketched her ideas for a redesign that enables students to repair and maintain their school bags without them becoming obsolete.

Let's take a little look at what Izzy did.

So the base of Izzy's bag is a complete redesign.

She decided that she would make a detachable reinforced base that could be replaced if it wore out, but that it would also be available in varying fashionable fabrics.

So actually, it could be fashionable to replace it rather than replace the whole bag.

So how does that attach then, Izzy? So Izzy decided she would use fasteners to lock the corners into place.

This is a little bit like if ever you've seen on a car mat in the driver's seat.

If ever you take out the car mat, there's a polymer bit that you have to twist to align for it to be able to come out.

And that's exactly what Izzy has done as fasteners onto the base of a bag.

Great design there, Izzy.

Well done.

I am sure you've all come up with some wonderful ideas too.

Make sure you make some time to share those amongst yourselves.

Well done.

This brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Let's recap what we have learned.

The responsibility for repair, maintenance, and recycling does not lie just with the user.

Design decisions can affect how easy something is to repair, maintain, or recycle.

Design decisions to stop products becoming obsolete include modular design; use of replaceable standard components; ability to be disassembled for repair or separation of materials; charging ports or accessible batteries; material choices, combinations, and labelling of them; repair manuals or videos; adhering to laws and regulations.

And developing countries have a long history of fixing, maintaining, and reusing things because they often need to make the most of what they have.

Well done with all of your hard work today.

I look forward to seeing you soon in another lesson.

Take good care.

Bye-bye-bye.