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P R O J E C T S	Designing Out Waste - Cycles System RSA Design Directions 2006 - Winning entry 1. Skip to the Flash Presentation The brief asked for design proposals that would minimise waste, and offered the opportunity to look at the problem from a "broader systems or holistic approach" rather than providing "merely a quick fix".
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	Development Process The larger issue of waste needs no introduction, but selecting what specific problem / area to address was a vital part of this project. My initial research was related to waste in general terms, this included information from DEFRA, the Wales Waste & Resources Research Centre and various other sources. After the first research phase I decided to focus on the problems relating to food, including production, consumption and packaging.





		"The UK produces over 8 million tonnes of packaging a year - enough to fill 19,000 jumbo jets." Source: Environmental Information Exchange "We use more food packaging per person than any other country in Europe." Source: John Vidal, "Drowning in a tide of discarded packaging"

			After selecting the specific issue of food packaging, my research became more focused and I was keen to find as many related problems as possible - I visited and analysed restaurants, buying co-ops, farmers markets, fast food outlets and supermarkets.



	The second stage was to contact the experts whose opinions I felt would be useful during the design process and whom I could work with to create a valid solution: I worked with three main people during the design process; Derek Davies (The Co-operative's Packaging Innovations Manager) in order to gain a better understanding of the issues that affect a retailer. Wendy Jedlicka, who was incredibly helpful, and almost acted as a third tutor during the project. As a sustainable packaging expert, she was able to give me detailed advice; especially in relation to source pathogens and other hygiene problems. Finally I consulted with Mat Hardwood, from Abel and Cole, mainly regarding distribution and logistics.



	Based on my research findings I generated a large variety of different concepts including: > edible fast food packaging > large-scale bulk food delivery service > starch-based packaging that could be dropped straight in the pan > reusable food packaging service After liasing with the others I selected the idea of large-scale bulk delivery and then worked to refine the concept until I had a feasible and realistic result.



			During development I decided that this concept was not going to provide me with the bold solution that I had initially hoped for. Instead I chose to return to one of my earlier ideas: a standardised packaging system where containers are cleaned and reused.


	Final Proposal


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