"You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled." Dhyani Ywahoo
Friday May 11th the Industrial Design Introduction students had a presentation of a project where they were challenged with the task of making it more motivating and maybe even fun for people to recycle.
In the initial research phase the students worked together. They explored the customer journey thoroughly, with interviews, study visits and cultural probes. During the research, the students learned that people recycle more at home than anywhere else, that organic recycling is neglected due to unavailability of organic recycling in public places and institutions like schools, restaurants, shopping malls. etc. There is no uniform recycling system, and this makes it really difficult to know what applies. Often the recycling stations are dirty and messy and this of course discourages recycling. Convenience is really important for the recyclers.
The cultural probe carried out by the students showed that the recyclers can be divided into six different types:
- the habit recyclers
- the social recyclers
- the guilt recyclers
- the big picture recyclers
- the don&t know, don&t care recyclers
- the unenthusiastic recyclers
Feedback before, during and after recycling seemed to be an important issue according to the interviewed, and this was something all groups had taken into consideration in their concepts. Almost every group also suggested a simple and clear colour coding system to easily recognize how and where to recycle the various household waste.
One group proposed a city campaign to start making recycling into a habit for Umeå citizens, and also public feedback by means of light bars on the new cultural building, the bars show the citizens& recycling.
The project was a part of a larger context, a project called Interactive recycling rooms, developed in a dialogue between Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå School of Business, the company FältCom and Umeå municipality through the project "Green citizens of Europe", based on the 2008 degree project by UID interaction design alumnus You Le Chong.
The project Interactive recycling rooms seeks to change households& behaviour and attitudes to waste management and thereby improve the contribution that individuals& daily behaviour provides for the creation of better environment and a more sustainable society. The overall aim of the project is to develop an interactive information service that helps individuals and households to make environmentally sound decisions regarding waste management.
