Reducing waste from healthcare in a society of mass consumption: Applying PSS for personal protective equipment

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering January 2021

Reducing waste from healthcare in a society of mass consumption

Applying PSS for personal protective equipment

Albert Eriksson

This thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Tech- nology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. The thesis is equivalent to 20 weeks of full-time studies.

The authors declare that they are the sole authors of this thesis and that they have not used any sources other than those listed in the bibliography and identified as references. They further declare that they have not submitted this thesis at any other institution to obtain a degree.

Contact Information:

Author:

Albert Eriksson

E-mail: aleb15@student.bth.se

University advisor:

PhD Student Ryan Ruvald

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Internet : www.bth.se

Blekinge Institute of Technology Phone : +46 455 38 50 00

SE–371 79 Karlskrona, Sweden Fax : +46 455 38 50 57

Abstract

Background. The amount of waste generated each year is increased, research indi- cates that 79 % of plastic waste is dumped in landfills, 12% to incinerated and 9% of the plastics are recycled. At the beginning of the year 2020, an increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) was noted as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic that spread around the world. As a foundation to the waste problem in society, Volvo Group presented its zero mission goals. The zero missions goals were to be captured in a problem space provided by Volvo. A problem space that students at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Stanford University were set out to find a solution to.

Objectives. The objectives of this thesis was through the Design Thinking strategy to find solutions that are circular and applied as a PSS. The goal is to apply a circular system of which Volvo Group can apply in their line of work, also to transition this solution into other areas, e.g. healthcare.

Methods. For research measures the Design Research Methodology was used to frame the research and Design Thinking to frame the design process.

Results. The result presented is a machine that can provide Volvo Group or health- care with circular single-use gloves. The circular aspects are enabled by a certain material, allowing the created system to be circular. The system is applied as a product-service system, enhancing the availability of gloves in either healthcare or inside Volvo Group.

Conclusions. The circular system applied as a PSS satisfies the goals by Volvo Group by reducing waste generated, increasing availability of protective equipment, thus increasing the safety of users in need of PPE. The created circular system has the potential to be applied in other areas than waste management and healthcare, which can be proved through future research.

Keywords: Product-service system, Design Thinking, Circularity, Personal Protec-

tive Equipment, Healthcare

Sammanfattning

Bakgrund. Mängden sopor som slängs ökar för vart år som går. Forskning visar att 79% av all plast som slängs går till deponi, 12% går till förbränning och resterande mängd plast (9%) återvinns. Under år 2020 har förbrukningen av skyddsartiklar av engångstyp ökat på grund av den Covid-19-pandemi som bröt ut i början av året.

Den ökade förbrukningen har sin tur medfört nedskräpning av skyddsartiklar i na- turen i en ökad omfattning. Till följd av detta har Volvo Group utformat ett uppdrag i syfte att få hjälp med att nå sin nollvision. Visionen innebär att utsläpp, olyckor och produktionsstopp ska upphöra helt och hållet. Uppdraget tilldelades en grupp studenter på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola och Stanford University. Studenterna fick i uppgift att angripa problemet och komma med en lösning som uppfyller företagets nollvision.

Syfte. Syftet med denna rapport är att genom design thinking- strategin finna en lösning som kan skapa ett cirkulärt system och appliceras som ett produkt-service- system (PSS). Målet är att kunna applicera detta system inom Volvokoncernen, men att även kunna presentera möjligheten att göra systemet tillämpningsbart inom sjukvården.

Metod. I rent forskningssyfte användes Design Research Methodology för att rama in forskningen som skedde parallellt med utvecklingsprocessen. Utvecklingsprocessen följde ramarna för Design Thinking som presenterar olika typer av verktyg för design och utveckling av en produkt.

Resultat. Det resultat som presenteras i denna rapport är ett cirkulärt system applicerat i en form av en PSS. Det som möjliggör detta system är ett material som tillåter reproduktion av engångshandskar som går att applicera inom sophanter- ingsindustrin. Detta indikerar även på att ett likande system kan medföra att sjukvår- den kan bli självständig i sitt användande av skyddsutrustning.

Slutsatser. Ett cirkulärt system som uppfyller Volvos nollvision genom att skydda deras arbetare sluter ett kretslopp för en typ av skyddsutrustning. Det leder även till ökad tillgänglighet av utrusning. Detta system har potentialen att appliceras inom sjukvården i form av ett centraliserat system på sjukhus som tillför mindre enheter med tillverkade handskar.

Nyckelord: Produkt service system, Design Thinking, Cirkuläritet, Personlig Sky-

ddsutrustning, Sjukvård

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my partners in this project of whom being Adam Backman, Axel Sjöberg, Johan Olsson Stjernberg, Marcus Skoog from Blekinge Institute of Technology, and Bennett Bolen, Emily Yang, Juhi Madan, Mikel Zuniga from Stan- ford University. I would like to thank Ryan Ruvald for the amount of support dedicated to my work in the project as well as the thesis. I would also like to thank Christian Johansson Askling for the opportunity to take part in the ME310 through BTH and the amount of support he has provided the group with. I would also like to thank Tobias Larsson for being one of the input supervisors of this project and I would like to thank our contacts at Volvo Group; Jenny Elfsberg, Martin Frank, and Bobby Frank.

I would like to thank Peter Blaschke and Ulf Pettersson for their help with the

assembly and testing of the prototype. I would also like to thank the professors at

Stanford University for their input and feedback during the project; Larry Leifer,

Mark Cutkosky, and George Toye. Finally, I would like to thank Matilda Carlsson

Lundberg for being understanding and supporting during this thesis.

Contents

Abstract i

Sammanfattning iii

Acknowledgments v

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Project Prompt . . . . 2

1.2 Product-Service Systems . . . . 2

1.2.1 PSS Examples . . . . 3

1.2.2 PSS In Healthcare . . . . 3

1.3 Aim And Purpose . . . . 3

1.4 Research Question . . . . 4

1.5 Collaboration Partners . . . . 4

1.6 Delimitations . . . . 5

2 Theory 7 2.1 On The Content . . . . 7

2.2 Product-Service System . . . . 7

2.2.1 Product Oriented Business Model . . . . 8

2.2.2 Use Oriented Business Model . . . . 9

2.2.3 Result Oriented Business Model . . . . 9

2.2.4 An Updated View Of PSS . . . 11

2.3 Design Thinking . . . 12

2.3.1 Understand . . . 13

2.3.2 Interviews . . . 14

2.3.3 Observe . . . 14

2.3.4 Observations . . . 15

2.3.5 Define Point Of View . . . 15

2.3.6 Ideate . . . 15

2.3.7 Prototype . . . 16

2.3.8 Testing . . . 16

2.3.9 Minimum Viable Product . . . 16

3 Method 17

3.1 On The Content . . . 17

Contents Contents

3.2 DRM Design Research Methodology . . . 17

3.2.1 Research Clarification (RC) . . . 18

3.2.2 Descriptive Study I (DS-I) . . . 18

3.2.3 Prescriptive Study (PS) . . . 19

3.2.4 Descriptive Study II (DS-II) . . . 20

3.2.5 Detailed Description Of The DRM Stages . . . 20

3.3 Design Thinking . . . 21

3.3.1 Understand . . . 21

3.3.2 Interviews . . . 21

3.3.3 Observe . . . 22

3.3.4 Observations . . . 22

3.3.5 Define Point Of View . . . 22

3.3.6 Ideate . . . 22

3.3.7 Prototype . . . 22

3.3.8 Testing . . . 23

3.3.9 MVP . . . 23

4 Results And Analysis 25 4.1 On The Content . . . 25

4.2 Need-finding . . . 25

4.2.1 Mälarenergi (Västerås) – Incineration plant . . . 25

4.2.2 Swedish Plastic Recycling (Motala) . . . 26

4.2.3 Ragn-sells(Häradsudden)- Landfill . . . 26

4.2.4 Observations . . . 26

4.3 Insights . . . 27

4.4 Ideate . . . 27

4.5 Prototyping & Testing . . . 28

4.5.1 Recreation of plastic packages . . . 28

4.5.2 Vacuum molding . . . 28

4.5.3 PVA packaging . . . 30

4.5.4 PVA single-use gloves . . . 33

4.5.5 Intended system . . . 36

4.6 MVP . . . 38

4.6.1 Testing . . . 38

4.7 Proof Of Concept . . . 40

4.8 Business Model & PSS . . . 42

4.9 Research Contributions . . . 43

5 Discussion 45 5.1 On the content . . . 45

5.2 Sustainability . . . 45

5.3 Design thinking . . . 46

5.3.1 Understand – Define Point of View . . . 46

5.3.2 Ideate . . . 46

5.3.3 Prototype & Testing . . . 47

5.3.4 MVP . . . 47

5.4 Business Model & PSS . . . 47

viii

Contents Contents

6 Conclusions And Future Work 49

6.1 On the content . . . 49 6.2 Conclusion . . . 49 6.3 Future work . . . 50

References 51

A Supplemental Information 53

A.1 Appendix A.1 - Project prompt . . . 53

A.2 Appendix A.2 - Arduino Code MVP . . . 54

List of Figures

2.1 Main and subcategories of PSS [1] . . . . 8

2.2 Sustainable Characteristics of different PSS types [1] . . . 10

2.3 Micro and Macro cycle [2] . . . 12

2.4 Design process as iteration of divergence and convergence steps or prototype cycles [3] . . . 13

2.5 Double diamond [2] . . . 14

3.1 DRM framework [4] . . . 18

3.2 Relationships between design, DR and DRM [4] . . . 19

3.3 Different types of research within DRM [4] . . . 20

4.1 Result of melting plastic around a mold to create a new item . . . 28

4.2 Vacuum mold with a pin-board for a modular mold . . . 29

4.3 Vacuum mold with a pin-board and silicon pad . . . 29

4.4 What the package looked like before delivery . . . 30

4.5 What the package looked like after delivery . . . 31

4.6 The system of the PVA packagage . . . 32

4.7 The humidity test setup . . . 33

4.8 PETG & PLA mold, first iteration . . . 34

4.9 Ceramic mold, second iteration . . . 35

4.10 The intended process of the machine [5] . . . 36

4.11 Intended system of the intended machine . . . 37

4.12 Detailed movement of the mold on the attachment axis . . . 37

4.13 Picture of the whole machine . . . 38

4.14 Attachment of the final iteration of the hand mold . . . 39

4.15 Pains of Joe and his colleagues . . . 40

4.16 Old to new . . . 41

4.17 The new system in the perspective of the old . . . 42

4.18 The system at large of the in-house glove recycling in healthcare . . . 43

A.1 Painted frame of the project prompt by Volvo Group [6] . . . 53

List of Figures List of Figures

xii

Nomenclature

DRM Design Research Methodology HDP E High-density polyethylene M V P Minimum Viable Product P O Product-Oriented

P P Polypropylene

P P E Personal Protective Equipment P SS Product-Service Systems P SSs Product-Service Systems RO Result-Oriented

U O Use-Oriented

Chapter 1

Introduction

As companies and societies begin to identify sustainability as a strategic opportu- nity, traditionally dangerous and pollutant areas of waste handling are embarking on ambitious goals such as Volvo Group’s of the zero mission; Zero emissions, Zero accident, Zero unplanned stops [7]. Taking on this mission Volvo Group is required to focus on innovative solutions that display radical business models that will en- courage companies within the waste management industry to change their way of thinking. The above-mentioned goals are realized to capture the value of the user to reduce the cost waste management has on both the environment as well as the social aspect.

The environmental aspect being, during the 21:st century the non-circular waste has become a larger problem. Due to the increase of the global population, consumerism, and linear industrialization, people’s lives have become more affluent leading to an increased amount of waste generated. The expected result as a direct consequence to this, is that the amount of waste generated is expected to be tripled by the year 2100 [8]. Given the climate around the environmental impacts of generated waste of today, there is a need for new innovations to reduce the amount of waste generated.

One of the main areas generating a redundant amount of waste is different sorts of plastics. Given the amount of different plastics available on the market, only a few are possible to recycle. In fact during the year of 2015 6 billion tons of plastic waste was generated, of which only 9 % was recycled, 12 % incinerated plants and 79 % ended up on landfills [9]. The lack of recycling is due to the different characteristics of plastics not allowing the recreation of new products, also due to user errors where plastics are sorted by being placed in the same or in the bin. This makes the industry to heavily to rely on sorting mechanisms that today are not able to provide a solid result of correctly sorted plastics.

The social aspect being a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, products such as personal protective equipment (PPE), e.g. single-use gloves, face mask, and disinfectant wipes.

Has become a large problem in the society where used single-use PPE can be found in

the nature [10]. Which calls for new innovative solutions to dispose of the used PPE

safely and correctly. Also, as a direct result of increased demand for PPE makes the

healthcare suffer the consequences of shortages, due to suppliers not being able to

meet the demand of PPE [11]. The status quo is that healthcare is lacking a system

1.1. PROJECT PROMPT

that can recreate or reprocess PEE to a level where the single-use items are sterile.

To meet the demand of society and primarily healthcare this thesis will focus on re- search areas of healthcare and work through the innovation process of design thinking to present a radical solution. The radical solution presented in this thesis is a prod- uct service system (PSS), with an emphasis on circularity to provide the user with future value. Due to the problem statement provided by Volvo, the solution will be created to fit a case study within waste management. However, it will be used to supply the argument that it can be applicable in the area of healthcare.

1.1 Project Prompt

The world is producing more and more waste, and with this increase comes new challenges to meeting the needs of customers and the vision of a sustainable planet.

Volvo Group came to the team and asked for a solution that is aiming towards their future goals of zero accident, zero emissions, and zero unplanned downtime.

Whereas they provided a project prompt where the team had to investigate different areas within the society of which generate waste and where it goes at the end of the life cycle. This is a goal that also is presented in their annual sustainability report [7].

• Volvo Group wants to see ideas and directions that change how waste man- agement operate with Volvo Group’s products and find new areas for Volvo Group

• The directions should have an impact on an industrial level and affect recycling and waste management for a large number of people

To cite prompt word by word, sentence by sentence, this is the challenge which was provided by Volvo: “We dream of a future of waste & recycling that will be safe, optimized and sustainable from the curbside collection, through a circular system, until ending up at compost, landfill or energy recovery. We believe in turning Waste into Value by reducing the reliance on mining the bedrock for material and instead of capitalizing on Urban Mining opportunities in society. The future waste & recycling industry should be an impressive industry with zero accidents, zero emissions, zero unplanned downtime, and much higher productivity. Convenience and predictability for everyone involved are wanted for households, drivers and operators, and all other humans. ” The project prompt is presented as a painted framed in Appendix A.1.

1.2 Product-Service Systems

There is no set definition of a product service system (PSS) [12], however a PSS tend to be devided into products (tangible), services (intangible), systems a collection of elements, or as Tukker [1] explains it;

“tangible products and intangible services designed and combined so that they jointly are capable of fulfilling specific customer needs”[1]

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

That further explains that there are eight different types of PSS, which are ap- proached in different ways, depending on whether the PSS is more product or service focused. Product focused PSS implicates that the product is owned by the user (e.g.

car sales where the user is the owner of the product and solely responsible for main- taining the product). While the more service focused PSS aims towards meeting the needs of users through applied services (e.g. Rolls Royce powered by the hour[13]).

1.2.1 PSS Examples

Car Sharing

GoMore™is a Danish company that lets users access a car that otherwise would not be used. Thus allowing people who own a car, to lend it out to other users on the website for a daily fee [14]. A system like GoMore creates the possibility of reducing the number of cars needed to be owned and instead be shared amongst different users.

Circular Headphones

Gerrard Street ™is a Netherlandic company providing users with headphones, the catch being that the user is paying for the experience of listening to music. Therefore moving the ownership of the headphones from the user and thus providing the service of quality sound [15].

1.2.2 PSS In Healthcare

PSS in healthcare is not widely researched according to Xing. K et al.[16], however it is discussed in articles that if a product-service system based business model can help the healthcare become more sustainable in a way that they do not have to be responsible for the care of the assets that can be replaced by a service in the long run.

It is discussed whether healthcare moves their direction away from the mass usage of single-use PPE and move towards a more recyclable way of providing a safe and clean environment for a patient visiting healthcare units around the globe. The benefits of PSS in healthcare a widespread, depending on which category is meant to improve, whether it is single-use PPE, machinery such as scanners (ultrasonic, X-ray, etc.).

The goal of implementing PSS into healthcare is to reduce downtime and material shortages and make healthcare more or less independent. Independent in ways that they do not rely on different companies to have machinery and/or materials in stock at all time and more rely on having services that always provides deliveries when the products are needed in the whole system of healthcare [16, 17, 18]

1.3 Aim And Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of how to implement a circular

system and with that a product service system (PSS). To create an understanding

of how PSS are implemented today, what limitations to PSS research has been able

to identify and what possible options there are when applying PSS design. Also to

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTION

include the human-centered innovation framework of design thinking to reach the aim of providing a PSS with implemented circularity.

1.4 Research Question

- How can product-service systems be implemented to create a more circular system in the area of healthcare?

1.5 Collaboration Partners

Volvo Group

Volvo group includes nine different business areas. Examples of involved business areas are Mack Trucks, Volvo Ce, Volvo Buses, and Volvo Trucks. A large network of collected brands allows Volvo Group to expand in the market and strengthen their competence-base. Volvo Group is combining the best out of two worlds, col- laborations with global organizations for product development and remaining. As mentioned in section Project prompt (add section number) Volvo has a zero vision where they aim towards zero accidents, zero emissions, zero downtime [7].

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

ME310 Stanford University

Stanford university is one of the largest universities in the world awarding the highest number of PhDs each year. It takes hard work and dedication to be part of a University such as Stanford, it is well due to the quality of the education that they provide their student with. One of which is the course ME310 run each year at Stanford, which takes place in a building called “D-school”. Some of the professors responsible for this course are; Larry Leifer (BioEngr, Design Methodology), Mark Cutkosky (ME, Robotics) aided by George Toye (ME & IT). Together with these professors, there are students from Stanford and students from around the world that is taking part in this course BTH being one of them. The students are set out to face challenges provided by collaboration companies, which in this case was Volvo and their Zero Vision challenge [6]. The ME310 course is set on following the famous Design Thinking Method, which has its origins from Stanford University the creator of which is John E. Arnold.

1.6 Delimitations

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that is currently spreading around the world

during the time of this thesis. The researcher has been forced to limit the amount

of social contact that otherwise could have been used to meet with various contacts

to present the proof of concept presented in this thesis. It further delimits the

researcher to conduct further testing on the material that the team of researchers

from the course of ME310 has found to create the proof of concept. Due to the lack of

knowledge in chemistry, the research conducted on the material was unbiased to make

the presented concept work. Also, the amount of knowledge around implementations

of PSSs, limits the researcher to heavily to rely on available research accessed through

online resources.

Chapter 2

Theory

2.1 On The Content

This chapter presents supplemental information about circular economy, product service system, and the human-centered innovation process of design thinking.

2.2 Product-Service System

While product-service systems (PSS) is about increasing the value of the product by implementing a service to it. It is also about reducing the need of owning a certain product and instead replace the ownership with a subscription or renting within a system. The point of doing so is to reduce the downtime due to material shortage and/or due to issues with the machinery supplying a certain facility with a specific product or material. In a world depending on the mass production of different items to reach market goals, PSS can enable possibilities of reducing the mass consumption of things that are not needed and focus more towards the things that are needed in today’s society and provide it[19].

Tukker [1] is presenting in an article that it exists eight different types of PSS. All of which differs in the economic and environmental characteristics. A Product-Service System can be identified as tangible products and intangible services designed and combined so that they jointly are capable of fulfilling specific customer needs (Tukker 2004). The three main PSSs are:

• A: Product-oriented (PO)

• B: Use Oriented (UO)

• C: Result oriented (RO) [1]

All these categories have their subcategories of PSS which are:

• PO – 1. Product-related, 2. Advice and consultancy

• UO – 3. Product lease, 4. Product renting/sharing, 5. Product Pooling

• RO – 6. Activity management, 7. Pay per service unit, 8. Functional Result

[1]

2.2. PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEM

All the different categories in PSS can be seen in figure (2.1). The general description of all the different categories are:

• The first main category (A) is product-oriented (PO) services. Where the business-model is mainly aimed towards product sales and services added to it.

• The second main category (B) is use-oriented (UO) services. Where the product still plays a central role. However, the business model is aiming towards having the products staying in ownership by the manufacturer but providing in a different form sometimes sharing it with a number of users.

• The third main category is result-oriented (RO) services, where the customer and the provider agree on a result which the provider should deliver [1].

Figure 2.1: Main and subcategories of PSS [1]

2.2.1 Product Oriented Business Model

• Product-related service: Here the provider sells a product and provides services that are needed to use the products. Which in other words can mean mainte- nance contracts, supplies of consumables, and take-back agreements when the product is at the end of its lifecycle.

• Advice and consultancy: Compared to the previous subcategory the sold prod- uct gets advice on the most efficient use of it provided by the provider. For example, can include advice such as the organizational structure of the ones using the product, or optimization of logistics in a factory [1].

There is an example explained in the article by W.Reim et al. who describes a case study where a health equipment supplier retrieved its healthcare equipment after it was used for recycling or disposing of the equipment. This by extending the range of the supply chain of the supplier in the end. The benefits of doing so are that the

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CHAPTER 2. THEORY

supplier is responsible to deliver and retrieve the product before and after it has been used [19].

2.2.2 Use Oriented Business Model

• Product lease: The products do not have a change of ownership; the provider is solely responsible for the product and the leaser/customer has unlimited access to the leased product.

• Product renting or sharing: The difference here to the previous subcategory is that the leaser does not have unlimited and individual access to the product.

• Product Pooling: Closely resembles product renting/sharing, the difference here is that there is a simultaneous use of the product [1].

2.2.3 Result Oriented Business Model

• Activity management/outsourcing: In this category, a part of a company is outsourced to a third party. Most outsourcing contracts include performance indicators to control the quality of the service provided. Examples of this are outsourcing of catering, cleaning, etc.

• Pay per service unit: This subcategory, in short, tells that the user no longer buys the product, only the outcome according to the level of use of it. Ex- amples of this are pay-per-print services, which leave the responsibility of the copier to the producer, such as making sure that the copier is working through maintenance and supplies of materials such as paper, toners, etc.

• Functional result: In this subcategory, the client and the provider agree on the delivery of a result. This contrasts with activity management/outsourcing, giving a functional result in abstract terms. Typical examples of this sort of PSS are companies that provide a general concept, a whole package deal, such as pleasing light in office areas [1].

However, after listing all these eight subcategories it is not easy for providers to provide a PSS that will or can last [20]. Meaning that the clients seldom know if they have received what they were asking for in the first place, which makes it harder for providers to know what they have to look at the beginning of the design process of their product. Therefore, we have to look deeper into the factors that come into play when it comes to PSSs to showcase whether a PSS business model is the best way to create more value for the product [1].

To choose a correct PSS type the provider has to consider what kind of PSS they want to provide since all of the different categories of PPS will provide a different outcome. When it comes to sustainability Tukker [1] provides a general view on each category and how they perform (see figure 2.2).

To understand the figure above a list of general explanation on each category is

placed down below:

2.2. PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEM

Figure 2.2: Sustainable Characteristics of different PSS types [1]

• 1. Product-related Service: Can have an impact on sustainability, however those impacts are directly related to how the user operates the product and how the user chooses to maintain the product to increase its life-cycle.

• 2. Advice and consultancy: Like the previous category, however, the recom- mendations from the provider might provide an incremental impact on the environment.

• 3. Product lease: Unclear on the impact due to the ownership of the product the owner can not control the usage of the product which can lead to compli- cations regarding the environmental impact.

• 4. Product renting and sharing: Compared to the previous category, this can have a larger environmental impact since several users are sharing the product i.e. more effective use of it. It might have an additional positive impact on the environment if it pushes the users to move towards a more environmentally friendly option such as public transport instead of car renting services.

• 5. Product pooling: Like the previous category, however, it implies that the product is used by many more users compared to several users in the previous case.

• 6. Activity management/outsourcing: This does not usually imply radical technology change, however it can provide more efficiency in the company and increase their financial position. However, it is seldom used to provide a positive environmental impact.

• 7. Pay per unit use: Since the responsibility is on the provider to ensure the increased lifespan of their product in its life-cycle it can have a positive environmental impact in the long-term. It also pushes the user to become more conscious of using the service.

• 8. Functional result: Has the highest potential of having a positive impact on the environment, where the provider can choose which approach is necessary to create the best result with the least amount of impact and in the most

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CHAPTER 2. THEORY

cost-effective way [1].

In short, the article from Tukker [1], suggest that functional results have the most environmental impact which according to figure 2.2 pushes the provider to create a more radical environmental impact.

2.2.4 An Updated View Of PSS

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) and the approaches to designing them, have un- dergone a necessary evolution since their introduction in the late 1980’s [21]. Early implementations of PSSs primarily envisioned it as a business model for the serviti- zation of products with additional services or lease type product ownership models driving the added value [19]. Lugnet et al. [21] provide an updated view of PSSs identifying the persistent faults carried forward from older PSS literature and bring into focus their theory for what could drive a new wave of PSS research. This new wave of PSS research is enabled by new tools for sustainable design in circular econ- omy (CE) and implementation of Industry 4.0 through digitalization. Where CE is used as an argument to push towards sustainable development to decouple economic growth based on resource depletion and environmental degradation [22].

Alongside the development of PSSs other factors comes into play such as Industry 4.0 ( [23], [24]), creating a connection between customers and companies through collected data [25]. This data can be used to influence PSSs into providing sustainable production and consumption value for both the customer and the producer. Bertoni A. [25] provides an overview of data driven design (DDD) that allows companies to gather data through information communication channels (e.g. social media), and Internet of Things (IoT). These channels can collect, interpret, and analyse data through a variety of contexts. Which could be used to influence PSS design for sustainable production through implementation of Industry 4.0.

Lugnet et al. [21] marks out the importance of pushing towards a society of shared usage of products built by various companies. Due to the ever-grooving development of PSS, implementation of Industry 4.0, and digitalization it is possible to provide radical solutions with applied CE to solve the sustainability challenge. However, Lugnet. [21], provides a concluding view that Industry 4.0 might push us towards over-consumption in the same way as before. Hence the reason why a CE should be implemented to reduce or mitigate the impact of over-consumption in PSSs.

The main problem of PSSs of today is that they are products focused with services added afterwards. Providing products with addon services, is not the same as PSSs.

For PSSs to succeed, services should be included in the early stages of development

to make it a complete PSS [21]. Thus the implementation of Industry 4.0 and mass

digitalization to provide the means and justification for companies to rethink their

development strategies being developed into a more comprehensive PSS design.

2.3. DESIGN THINKING

2.3 Design Thinking

Design thinking is a strategy focused on deriving needs from real users and imple- menting those as the requirements for design. This is also referred to as human- centered-design. Design thinking is an iterative process consisting of many loops to exploring both the problem and solution space to ensure the most relevant problem is being addressed by the best possible solution based on facts, research, and exper- imentation [3]. For a product, service, or system to succeed it needs to overcome inherent behavioral barriers to change. Seeing how human behavior is one of the key factors in design thinking it is only natural that it plays a major role in design think- ing, to meet the various needs that humans have. The expected outcome of design thinking is to create radical or transformative new solutions to meet various human needs. Systems humans interact with are rather complex, therefore a need for un- derstanding human-behavior is established through the strategy of design thinking.

The strategy of design thinking iterative process is presented in figure 2.3, providing the stages of which the process is looped [2]. It largely presents what the framework of design thinking. The intention is to create an understanding of user needs and translate those needs into creation of ideas [3]. Ideas that are visualized through various types of ideation techniques and in turn realized through rapid prototyping.

Figure 2.3: Micro and Macro cycle [2]

Design thinking is intended to be used to change the behaviour of designer to then be projected into user behaviour. Design thinking revolves around the thought of always

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CHAPTER 2. THEORY

looking at the origins of the problem in hindsight throughout a project. As presented in figure 2.4 the project space is rather wide, and it diverge and converge throughout the development process. Coherently with the micro- and macro-cycle (see figure 2.3), the design process, progresses through the loops of divergence and convergence enforces radical design. Divergent activities are conducted to broaden the perspective

Figure 2.4: Design process as iteration of divergence and convergence steps or pro- totype cycles [3]

of the problem space for better understanding, to rapidly go through design-build- test cycles. Each cycle in the diverging phase, facing the problem in hindsight, to create a better understanding of the user and to broaden the possible amount of solutions to the problem. Providing the Generative Design Questions (GDQs) and Deep reasoning questions (DRQs). The first reflects convergent thinking and the latter divergent thinking. These questions are comprehensive to the double diamond (see figure 2.5), where GDQs are used to drive creative discussions related to the problem, to the contrary DRQs are derived to reduce the alternatives generated by GDQs [3].

2.3.1 Understand

The start of the design thinking process is to create an understanding of the problem, hence the problem statement that needs to be addressed throughout the project [26].

A problem statement can for instance be supported by context mapping or “How might we. . . ” questions. The first presenting the context at large in the problem are, and the latter can help problem definitions be transferred into design opportunities [26]. Also, a part of understanding is to participate in explorative interviews. Ex- plorative interviews are used in the early phase as tool to explore other needs that otherwise is not presented in the problem (see subsection Interviews).

Techwatching

Techwatching is used for understanding the potential of technology providing infor-

2.3. DESIGN THINKING

Figure 2.5: Double diamond [2]

mation what they can do [27]. Also, identifying what emerging technologies, services and disciplines that can be used to choose a direction a company chooses to pursue.

It is achieved through concise, although persistent, interest in the development in tech from competitors.

Trendwatching

Trendwatching is providing the understanding emerging market and societal trends.

A trend being a long term commitment of fulfilling needs of users, thus creating an understanding of the future market and develop solutions that can meet future needs [27].

2.3.2 Interviews

Need-finding is a way of looking into the scope of the problem from the perspective of other individuals. This by interviews with questions that can help the team or individual problem solvers to gather information about what impressions certain people have about the problem. There are several ways to make an interview. The most important thing is to make the interview more of a conversation and ask many questions to get to the roots of the problems, that the person getting interviewed, has. Whether it is a product, a certain situation in their life or something that they feel is missing today, etc. The goal is to find the needs that can be fulfilled [3].

Interviews are categorized in different ways based on who the person being inter- viewed is [28]. One being expert interviews where the subject (person being inter- viewed) is asked various questions to inform the interviewer. Surveys, a tool that consist of carefully structured questions asked in various perspectives, to rapidly test insights.

2.3.3 Observe

At large observations are about creating a deeper understanding of what has already been found in the understanding phase [26]. However, the focus of the observation phase is to dig deeper into feelings that users have when they interact with everyday

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CHAPTER 2. THEORY

systems. These pains and gains can be presented in a persona, a fictitious character that represent a user or customer. The persona is used to put a potential solution into the context of which the persona is affected by.

2.3.4 Observations

Observations in the context of need-finding, is used as a tool to gather information by observing human behavior in the context they are interacting with. Observations are conducted when there a need for biased information in regards of human behavior.

Observations can be conducted through: Assuming the role of the subject, ask for a tour at a given place, observe and photograph anonymously (Paparazzi). Important aspects to be considered during the time of conducting observations are to distinguish between needs and solutions, look beyond the obvious. Also, watch for “work around”

that users make in their everyday life interacting with products [28]. The underlining of observations as a part of "Need-finding" is that it strongly co-relates to Interviews with the tools of gathering insights to human-behavior and user needs.

2.3.5 Define Point Of View

In this phase of design thinking a common knowledge base is established through weighting of all the findings. This in turn is best done by telling stories of what have been experienced, presenting pictures, description of emerged reactions and emotions of people [2]. Defining the point of view creates the means for a common understanding for the needs, therefore the collected resources from the previous steps are collected and analyzed [26]. For instance “how might we. . . ” (HMW) questions are sorted out as too broad or narrow, the inbetweeners is the sweet spot for the next phase.

2.3.6 Ideate

In this phase the information gathered in the previous stages plays a crucial role to

create a foundation based on the collected data [26]. The data is put into practice,

inspiring idea creation (ideation). The ideation phase is best put to practice through

the tools of brainstorming. To assist the brainstorming session, a “brain dump” is

conducted to clear the heads of the team members, and to let all the voices in the

team be heard through idea communication. Brainwriting being one of the tools

that can be conducted, based on one brought up HWM question, where the team

in silence can present their ideas through visual communication. These ideas are

further developed by others participating in the brainstorming session, the goal is to

generate new ideas and capture the creative potential from reserved people. These

ideas are presented to later be evaluated. Evaluation of these ideas are conducted

through voting, the goal is to extract the ideas that can prove to be valuable in the

sense of solving the problem.

2.3. DESIGN THINKING

2.3.7 Prototype

Prototypes are tangible artifacts that makes evaluated ideas from the previous phase more perceptible [26]. The goal of creating prototypes are to evaluate simple critical functions that provide crucial knowledge to the creation of the final prototype. Leifer L & Steinert M. [3], provides the view of rapid conceptual prototyping as way of testing and searching for boundaries within the idea. Each prototype are tested to extract information of whether it can solve the problem or not, if only to an extent, it can be used to supplement the final solution.

2.3.8 Testing

Testing is used for creating an understanding of how the prototype the feasible, and if the user of the prototype can give supplemental information of what needs are fulfilled and the ones that are not [26]. While testing it is crucial to let users interact with the prototype for a longer time, thus allowing the researchers gather more data of user needs. This data is collected by asking users qualitative and quantitative questions about current pains & gains during the experience of testing the prototype.

2.3.9 Minimum Viable Product

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a tool, which is used to supplement the support for further development of a product, service, or business model [26]. The aim of a MVP, essentially, is to provide the developers with insights of whether the solution satisfies the user needs in a meaningful way. Users being potential customers, companies or other stakeholders that find the solution satisfying. Essentially a MVP is a more polished prototype with the basis of launching a product based on the tests and feedback received the MVP will either be implemented, adapted, or eliminated.

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Chapter 3

Method

3.1 On The Content

This section provides the reader with the information needed to understand the basis on which the design process was conducted, and connect the result from the project with the research applied during the project. In section 4.1 the reader can read about the Design Research Methodology (DRM) and how it ties the project and the research together by following steps provided in DRM providing a framework to strategically plan its scope and depth. In section 4.2 utilization of the design thinking process is described.

3.2 DRM Design Research Methodology

Design Research Methodology (DRM), provided by Blessing & Chakrabarti is the main focus in the sense of research methodology in this thesis [4]. DRM was used in this thesis and in the project as a guiding framework, the stages presented below were used to frame the research conducted in this thesis. All the different steps during the project and the studies are a part of some of the different stages in the DRM. The different stages within DRM will be specified along the line in this thesis in order to relate the research to the methodology.

The framework is painted out in Figure 4.1 which explains how the different stages should be prioritized. Figure 4.1 shows that this methodology is flexible, i.e. that group can move back and forth in the regards of the different steps during the time of which the project is running. Figure 4.2 shows the relationships between design, design research and design research methodology. [4].

The methodological framework explains that DRM consist of four stages: Research Clarification RC, Descriptive Study I (DS-I), Prescriptive Study (PS) and Descriptive Study II. The methodological framework within DRM is used to create a structure of the research which then can be applied in areas of design and prototyping [4].

Before explaining into further detail about the different stages there are some things

clarify such as what types of research there are within the DRM framework and the

relationships between design, design research and design research methodology[4].

3.2. DRM DESIGN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Figure 3.1: DRM framework [4]

3.2.1 Research Clarification (RC)

The aim of this stage is to make the researchers to find evidence or proof that the need for their research goal is worthwhile. The goal is to search the literature for factors that can support the research leading into task clarification and product success. The next step is to create a description of the current situation and create a description of the desired situation. Based on this the researchers go further into the outcome of the research and clarifies other measurements on order to meet the requirements of the end goal in the research [4].

The description in the RC stage in this thesis was provided by Volvo in their project prompt (see section 1.1 project prompt). This discretion was used in the RC phase to clarify which direction the project would in alignment with the ME310 course.

The goal was set to look deeper into services, technology, and design in the area of waste-management and how the researcher could find a way of implement PSS and creating circularity. This implies that this thesis is filling the requirements for the RC stage.

3.2.2 Descriptive Study I (DS-I)

Here the researchers get into the next stage with a set goal to focus on, it is now up to the researcher to do look deeper into the literature and do a review of the current data and information gathered in order to clarify the task clarification. The researcher can with current description of the problem further elaborate whether to look deeper into the current description and clarify certain factor(s) and improve the description or continue with the current description into the next stage. However, decisions

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CHAPTER 3. METHOD

Figure 3.2: Relationships between design, DR and DRM [4]

merely based on literature study is not enough to clearly specify crucial factors. i.e.

researchers will have to develop interrogation techniques to gather further data to clarify the unknown factors in the current description [4].

This stage elaborates further on the RC stage. Based on the RC stage the researcher has been able to gather information regarding PSS, however it requires further justifi- cation trough further exploration in the project moving into a creation of a prototype.

Which then can help the researcher with the support of the literature study justify the research in co-relation to the project.In order to succeed the researcher had to expand the knowledge by conducting company visits in the waste management in- dustry to widen the perspective on areas which PSS can be applied. The researcher further undertakes the task to build a prototype iterated in several stages.

3.2.3 Prescriptive Study (PS)

The third stage is PS where the researchers have a increased understanding of the current situation to correct and elaborate on their initial description of the desired situation. The goal in the PS stage is to move towards a solution based on the DS-I where the description of the current situation has been clarified, the factor(s) been targeted and after several modifications in the previous stages seeing the possible end result to reaching a shorter time-to-market and increased product success. The goal is to use the well-developed description from the DS-I stage of the desired situation to create a systematic way of moving towards a following in a design methodology.

The researches then decide to focus on realisation efforts based on support based

on a software tool, to allow evaluation of the concept and verification of underlying

assumptions. If a first evaluation of the support shows that it has been created

correctly. if the support got desired effects cannot be clear yet since the description

of the desired situation is based on many assumption [4]. Based on the previous

stages the researcher has collected information through company visits to widen the

perspective to piece out the literature study. The researches use this stage close the

project and preparing the results to use for others.

3.2. DRM DESIGN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.2.4 Descriptive Study II (DS-II)

The fourth and final stage in DRM is DS-II where the researchers investigate the impact of the support from the previous stage and its ability to reach the desired situation which is listed below:

• The first study is used to evaluate the applicability of the support

• The second study is used to find out how useful the the software is, i.e. how successful the software is at evaluating in order reach success within the created criteria.

Questions now for the researchers to answer is if whether it was worthwhile to spend less time on modification and whether it eventually decreased the time-to-market.

According to studies Blessing & Chakrabarti mean that support is applicable, how- ever the use of the support is less than expected. It is partly caused by the fact that the support actually developed only includes parts of the support intended. Based on observations the researchers found errors affecting the amount time needed to keep the defined problem up to date [4]. This stage can not be justified by the researcher since the research done is not based on a second descriptive study.

3.2.5 Detailed Description Of The DRM Stages

Based on figure 4.3 the researcher has identified the second type of DRM, to best reflect the research conducted to fit within the aim this thesis. This is based on the limits in the project and the research only stretching to a Prescriptive Study.

Figure 3.3: Different types of research within DRM [4]

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CHAPTER 3. METHOD

3.3 Design Thinking

Design thinking was used as the main design process during the project and collabo- ration with ME310 (Stanford) and Volvo Group. In this section an overview of how design thinking was utilized will be presented.

3.3.1 Understand

In the phase of understanding, the team of researchers started the project using an already provided context map (see Appendix A.1). The context map presents the different areas of waste management in society as of today. Each are were tackled by the creation of “how might we. . . ” (HMW) questions, later used as questions to be answered by already existing solutions, or by documenting the questions to be answered throughout the phases of design thinking. To create and understanding of the different areas within the context of the project prompt, Techwatching and Trendwatching was used to create an understanding of the current climate on the market. Also, to see if some of the defined HMW questions could be answered through brief searches on the internet, i.e. these brief searching sessions were used to eliminate some questions. Interviews were conducted to elaborate on the problem and get insights of more needs in the areas of waste management.

3.3.2 Interviews

Interviews were conducted through different field visits and through social channels such as emails and online meetings. For the different field visits a frame were created of which questions the team of researchers wanted answers to. These questions were aimed to fit within the context of each area that each company facilitates within.

The visits conducted were:

• Ragn-sells (Häradsudden, Norrköping), landfill. The purpose of the visit was to gather insights of what types of materials that essentially end up on landfills.

• Swedish Plastic Recycling (Motala), plastic sorting. The purpose was to gather insights of how plastics are sorted today.

• Mälarenergi (Västerås), incinerationplant. The purpose was to gather insight of how and what material essentially end up in incineration plants.

The interviews conducted during these visits fits within the “expert interview” cate- gory of interviews. Leading questions was asked to create a better understanding of each field of which these companies operate within.

Survey type questions were used when reaching out to various companies through

email, which was done to get rapid insights of the field of which they operate in. An

online meeting was conducted with Kalmar hospital to create a better understanding

of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, what thoughts the hospital

might have on the MVP presented in the result.

3.3. DESIGN THINKING

3.3.3 Observe

During this phase of design thinking the team of researchers were using interviews and observations of understanding the emotions different stakeholders of interest had. It was partly done through the interviews, also through observations that were conducted throughout the project. Emotions during this phase being reactions to different questions during interviews.

3.3.4 Observations

Observations were mainly conducted in the form of field visits where a tour guide walked the team of researchers through the stages of their processing of waste ma- terial. Observations were also able to be conducted throughout the project where information of user errors from human-behavior could be gathered.

3.3.5 Define Point Of View

In this phase, the project team narrow down the HMW questions based on how wide or narrow they are. Also, after going through the HMWs the project team presented what each person had been able to gather through out the previous phases in order to create common knowledge within the team.

3.3.6 Ideate

In this phase brainstorming was conducted to communicate ideas in the scope of the sorted HMW questions in the previous phase [26]. The brainstorming tool of choosing was brainwriting were each team member visualized its idea, then allowing other members to create addons to each idea. All the ideas were evaluated to understand to which extent each idea could solve the problem. Ideas outside the scope of the problem was disqualified.

3.3.7 Prototype

Prototypes were built to create a more tangible understanding of the ideas in the previous phase. The prototypes were evaluated to get further insights of what part of the problem it could solve. The evaluation method of choosing was to test the different prototypes to understand if it could solve the problem and how it solves the problem. If either one was unclear the prototype was iterated to create a better understanding of how it could be applicable to solve the problem.

Prototypes were built in lab areas of which woodwork, 3D-printing, and metal work could be used to supplement the creation of the prototype. Using these areas, rapid iterations of each prototype were able to be generated. However, due to the Covid- 19 pandemic these areas were restricted for a period. Pushing the team to create prototypes with equipment available in homes and some supplemented by Blekinge Institute of Technology.

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CHAPTER 3. METHOD

3.3.8 Testing

Tests were conducted to understand if each prototype created was feasible (i.e. see if the created prototypes could work at all). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was not possible to do create social gathering for user testing. Hence the main focus during this project was to create an understanding of prototypes by testing their feasibility.

3.3.9 MVP

Minimum viable product (MVP) was created to get a better understanding in the

scope of the problem. Also, as a result to the previous iterations of prototypes and

need-finding.

Chapter 4

Results And Analysis

4.1 On The Content

This chapter presents the results from the design thinking process (Need-Finding, ideas, and MVP), insights on how the researchers transitioned during this project.

Furthermore, a value proposition as a proof of concept and business model, and thesis attributions are presented in this chapter.

4.2 Need-finding

To better understand stakeholders within the prompt, need-finding was conducted to better understand needs within areas of interest. Field visits presented below was part of the need-finding process as well as observations conducted.

4.2.1 Mälarenergi (Västerås) – Incineration plant

Goal of the visit: Get a better understanding of how much waste is incinerated and what by-products are generated after incineration.

• Mälarenergi provides heat and electricity to nearby communities in Västerås (Sweden).

• They burn waste to extract energy, however, there are non-burnable materials that end up in the incineration plants, which ends up in the filtered ashes.

• The energy-recovery from burning waste is seen as being energy recycling.

• The takeaway from this field visit was that there is much waste that is going to incineration plants and not recycling the material for reuse and metals that were left in the ashes too hard to filter out with the technology that exists today.

Outcome of the visit: Burning waste is seen as energy recovery in Sweden, metals

and other particles are by-products in form of aches (ends up on landfills), lack of

waste sorting resulting in more material ending up in the incineration plants.

4.2. NEED-FINDING

4.2.2 Swedish Plastic Recycling (Motala)

Goal of the visit: To better understand how plastics are sorted today and what plastics are reused after sorting.

• Swedish Plastic Recycling is a modern plastic sorting facility in Motala.

• They can sort out plastics based on color, and weight (e.g. PP & HDPE).

• However difficult to sort out some materials based on user misplacement at the recycling center.

• The, takeaway from this visit was the fact that black and darker coloured plastics were hard to sort out and which out of these were recyclable and not. Also, that the service provided by the recycling centre is to sort out the "bad" from the "good" plastics. I.e. plastics that can be recycled. The product provided is bales of sorted plastics, the service is sorting the plastics, the system is the different stages inside the recycling centre, also being part of the recycling process.

Outcome after visit: The recycling centre is trying to inform suppliers of plastic packages about what plastics that can be used to make them reusable. Plastics that can not be correctly sorted could be marked or a plastic material that is reusable and applicable in all areas of packaging.

4.2.3 Ragn-sells(Häradsudden)- Landfill

Goal: To understand how landfills are operated today, if there are documents of old landfills, what materials that usually are place on landfills today, and if it is documented today.

• Ragn-sell Häradsudden is a landfill, it is a landfill that has successfully mined one of their old landfills. However, the success was based on the knowledge of the content inside that part of the landfill.

• Landfills are full av toxic materials such as asbestos, old chemicals, different metals that were left there before the possibilities of recycling became a reality.

Today many new items are recorded if landfill mining becomes a reality in the future.

• The takeaway from this visit was the fact that many used materials were thrown away and maybe never to be used again.

Outcome: Landfills are created in layers, filled with waste, dirt and covered with a rubber blanket and dirt. Old landfills are not documented, it is known that old landfills contain toxic materials that are “filtered” through dirt and bed rock. New landfills are documented with what materials are stored,

4.2.4 Observations

Other findings during the need-finding process was the following observations: Single- use Nitrile-gloves ending op on the streets during the Covid-19 pandemic, plastics

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CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

floating around shores, plastics floating in the water.

4.3 Insights

The researchers in the project of ME310 has gone through several areas within the project prompt. In this section a short overview of the transition from the prompt to the result. To begin with; the research has mainly focused on the area of collecting waste from the curb and how to make that more efficient, and safe. Field visits were conducted to get more insights into this area. After supervision with Volvo, this problem space was disregarded since the project was too short for the team to generate a solution with a larger impact. Also, a lot of research was already conducted within the curb-side waste collection.

Furthermore, landfill mining, ocean-plastics, and plastic recovery were investigated.

Rapid prototypes were created to understand if landfills could be scanned for mate- rial, e.g. a drone with a nail attached to it was supposed to take earth samples to investigate what materials were available in the soil. This prototype was taken out of the equation rather quickly since it failed to even reach penetrate the soil. Although fields like landfill mining, etc. are important to solve, the complexity and lack of maturity (FDEM soil scanners for example) set further investigation on hold. The decision was partly based on further consultancy with Volvo, who recommended the team to decide which problem to solve. Therefore, a voting session was conducted, criterion’s created were based on what everyone already knew after gathering data, how complex these areas were and how mature today’s solutions were. Thus, leading the team not to pursue landfill mining, nor ocean-plastics, due to either complexity, maturity, or the work already conducted in these areas. Hence the reason to why and how the team transitioned from the prompt to the result. Moving forward to the time of the pandemic becoming a reality the team transitioned to what is presented in the MVP section.

4.4 Ideate

The ideation phase was done through storyboards and brainwriting, it gave a variety of different ideas. Many were evaluated and shortly realized to be too radical others were not. What the team was able to evaluate was the following ideas:

• Recreation of plastic packages

• Vacuum molding of old plastic articles

• Polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) packaging instead of cardboard packaging

• PVA single-use gloves

The briefly presented ideas above were some of the ideas generated throughout the

project, they are however of interest in this thesis to showcase how the team pro-

gressed through design thinking to reach the MVP.

4.5. PROTOTYPING & TESTING

4.5 Prototyping & Testing

Tangible prototypes were created to help the researchers understand if the ideas were feasible, if the prototypes created was able to solve the defined problem and how.

These were the criterion’s the prototyping and testing sessions had to fulfil to reach further development. Future development in the sense of providing a proof of concept that could provide a solution of value for the future users.

4.5.1 Recreation of plastic packages

The goal framed for this prototype was to understand how the plastics behaved while affected by heat, and how formable former plastic packages while applying heat. The applied heat was generated with a heat gun, to form the plastic a mold was used in the form of drinking glasses. As could be seen in figure 5.1, the attempt of creating a new item by using old packages, generated a lump of melted plastic and somewhat formed as a glass. Based on the goals of creating and testing this prototype for

Figure 4.1: Result of melting plastic around a mold to create a new item feasibility it failed in the sense of using old plastics to create a new item. It is true that a new item is presented in figure 5.1, although not usable due to big holes presenting itself on the item therefore it is failing to be used as a glass.

The takeaways from this prototype were that plastics are hard to reuse. Depending on the characteristics of the plastics used it will either be impossible or hard to recreate items of this kind of material. This is due to different addons that some plastics has, such as hardening compounds, etc.

4.5.2 Vacuum molding

Vacuum molding was tested based on previous insights by the author of this thesis.

The insights being that on a fair observing the use of vacuum molding with sheets out of PLA plastics (made from corn starch) to generate castings out existing item.

A vacuum mold was created out of interest to understand if used plastic could be used again to create new items or castings, e.g. phone cases.

As presented in figure 5.2, the result of building a vacuum mold and try to justify as possible tool to create new items with new plastics proved to be difficult. As in the previous section the same problem occurred, the plastic being to hard to form itself

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CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

after the shape of the mold. Even though using vacuum through the small holes presented in figure 5.2 and applied heat the idea failed. It is seemingly believed to be caused by the characteristics in the material, but also not knowing the exact amount of heat that was applied and perhaps due to misconstruction of the molding unit as well. Even though the prototype in figure 5.2 was considered as a failure due to

Figure 4.2: Vacuum mold with a pin-board for a modular mold

lack of formability of used plastics, it was deemed interesting to further investigate this prototype. Therefore, a silicon pad was added to test if the surface of the mold being the issue of not being able to recreate new items. Also, a pinboard was added to understand if it was possible to make the mold modular (see figure 5.3). The reasons to make a mold modular was to simply test if it was possible to prototype a tool for designers to use in the future. For instance, the designer is creating a cast in a design programme, it is then decoded to control the mold and letting it form itself to the created cast design. Testing of this prototype provided that the silicon

Figure 4.3: Vacuum mold with a pin-board and silicon pad

pad blocked the holes of which the vacuum mold was depending on to make the

idea work. Therefore, this idea was deemed a failure. The key learnings from these

prototypes were that plastics are hard to work with in general, not many of them

being possible to recreate or reuse.

4.5. PROTOTYPING & TESTING

4.5.3 PVA packaging

The PVA package was created with plastic sheets out of PVA. The package was created by folding the sheet of plastic into a letter which then was glued together with applied heat from a hair straightener. The result can be seen in the figure 5.4.

Figure 4.4: What the package looked like before delivery

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