Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Date: 12th Dec 2019

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective: Do an activity in order to make up for the beach cleanup activity which I missed

Below is the photo of where the waste from our building goes to. I just leave the waste at the 1st floor of the building where there’s a trash room and from there the waste gets collected and sorted into these three drums which can be seen in the photo below and get locked. 

Trash Channel in the Building I live in

From this video below you can see that a person is sorting the trash. Many people like him come 7pm onwards when its slightly dark. At night time around 9pm a big truck comes to take all the trash. 

Reflection:

I really enjoyed doing this activity of finding out where the trash from my building goes to and then tracking out who comes to collect it and at what times. However, the biggest failure for me in this activity was that I was not able to talk to the trash collectors in Chinese and I was not able to find anyone who could help me translate what they said from Chinese to English or at least communicate what I wanted to say. therefore, I was not able to interview a trash collector but I was able to ask my building’s helper who spoke in English to guide me through the trash channel. 

Next thing which I did after not being able to Interview in Chinese although I had the trash collector right infront of me 🙁

In school for the makeup of the beach-cleanup we had the swap event. therefore, I thought it would be so nice if we could have a small swap event on my floor in the building I live in.

Here’s a poster of that event:

It was pretty interesting because when I just placed a poster for a day I got 2 things exchanged. Outside my apartments door I found a big stuffed bear as an exchange for a shirt. I found it pretty cool. 

Here’s a photo of it. I think this swap event on my floor was very successful!

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed 

Date: 11th Dec’ 2019 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective: Final Project Documentation 

Website name: Remade in China Fall 2019

Project Title: Working towards finding sustainable alternatives to Plastics  

Why make a Website? Motivation behind it?

I basically created the website because I feel like in the second part of the semester our main shift was on the Bioplastics and I basically found them very cool and a great alternative to the regular plastics. I saw that students in my class were doing some really cool experiments about the Bio-plastics so I thought it would be nice to have a place where we could keep their projects and experimentation safe and also, people outside from our class would be able to seek helps from our class work, comment on our projects and also if they get stuck while doing something we would have a chat box where they could send photos and we would be able to instantly reply (one of the student from the Remade in China class). 

I also saw other websites about the Bio-Plastics and found out that they did not have the chat features, experiences of the people, and challenges section so I thought our class website having those would be really cool. 

Why make a magazine or basically experiment with it?

I thought that it would be really nice to have a website for the digital part and the magazine for the physical part but then, Marcela suggested me that it would be better to not focus much upon that because earlier people have worked on that and it does not differentiate your work a lot from others so then I thought that it would be better to just keep on working on the website(digital) part. 

Project Statement:

My project is basically a way through which the experimentation we did in the class will be able to cater and help a wider audience. I want this website to tackle the issues for finding the homemade alternatives to plastic and Bioplastics being one of them. This website is also an amalgamation of some of the features which previous websites made on this idea have to offer but what makes it different is that it has those features which other websites do not have such as sign up button, login button, add comments button, add your own work button, chat box, attachments etc are some of the features to name. 

Research:

These are the three websites about the bioplastics which were most popular about internet. I basically researched the most about bioplastics because I am interested more towards them and even in the website I included more experiments on the Bioplastics. 

https://www.bioplasticsmagazine.com/en/

/biomebioplastics.com

www.thinkbioplastic.com

Experience: 

I really enjoyed working on this and I think I was one of those people in the class who sort of gained the most from the final projects because in order to incorporate into the website I nearly read all of my colleagues works and their failures and success. I think that was pretty fruitful. 

I also think that this layout of the website can get really successful due to its features and especially the minimalistic design which this website has. 

Photos from Class Presentation of the Final Project:

On the above photo you can see the flyers which I made for promoting our class work especially based on the Bio-Plastics. In future, as discussed with Marcela we plan on printing our class flyers on the paper made by Joyce. The paper she made is recyclable paper so it would be nice to promote something about sustainability on something created based on the idea of sustainability. 

Also, you can scan the QR code on the poster in order to direct to our website. this is the QR code which I have added below and you can also see it on the poster. 

Website features which makes it different from other websites:

1. It is a student based website working specially in China so it would cater the Chinese students studying at other universities and also the people who just want to experiment with the bioplastics. 
2. It has a chat box feature which would get the people experimenting using our website instant replies if we are online at that time or they could leave a message which we would reply soon. They could also send the attachments of where they went wrong to us and we could see and respond to their queries. 
3. I also have the Events section where they could find out about the recent events happening in Shanghai or all over in China but they would be initiated by the Remade in China students or faculty.
4. I also added the new section which leads to the monthly newsletter. I want us all to have something to produce a newsletter produced on monthly basis so the people outside the class can see our progress and can look into the new experiments which we have conducted and also in that newsletter talk about the experiments which we want to get done by the next month so that the website audience can anticipate what they will see next month. 

Here are some of the photos of those features which I really like:

Failures:

I think for me the magazine was a big failure because it did not turn out to be the way I had thought it would turn out to be or at least the impact it would create was very different from the one I had thought of. 

I also wanted to code the website fully by myself but I just coded unto a certain point and then I started to have a lot of coding challenges therefore, I resorted to the online website making solution. 

Feedback received:

I think a lot of people really appreciated my website and found it very interesting. But, one feedback about the “login option” and about the layout really struck me and I would like to work on it in the future. 

Next steps:

Today we took a class group photo (on the last day of the classes) and I think on the homepage background I would add that photograph because I think it would give it a more class touch and that’s one improvement I would bring to it by the feedback we received. 

I would also like to add the login or sign up option to my website more visible.So, that the people can sign in and then become a part of our website and add the content they want to add. 

Improvements which I have made after receiving the feedback on my website:

Now you can see that I have added the button at the top of the website for adding information and also for the signup so that people can signup and become a part of it and add their words and make comments etc. 

Also, I received the feedback that this does not look much of a class website so in order to give it more of our class remade in China touch I add the photo from one of our workshops as the website background page. 

I have circled above the new two features I have added. The signup and login feature and the add comments feature. 

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed doing this project and overall, the entire semester. I feel like I learnt a lot in this class in terms of moving towards more sustainable ways, changing our daily practices, trying to become a more environmental friendly person and trying to love planet more than what we do as of now because we create a lot of trash through our daily chores. 

I hope my website is able to reach to a larger audience and more people could work upon it so that it could be improved with further critique. In future I also hope to add a set criteria for adding the posts etc to the website so that the good quality posts could only be found on the website. Overall, I really enjoyed working on my idea and I just hope I can expand more on it in the future and add up more of my individual experiments to it as well. 

Note: I have made a separate post named as “Final Experimentation” which included I did also the experiments I did in order to reach the final result. 

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed 

Date: 10th Dec’2019

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective: Final project’s, experimentation…

Here are some images of the magazine I was trying to design; 

The QR code of the website; 

First I was trying to write the code of the website myself which I was experimentation in this case. But, then I thought writing code would be quite complex as I needed different function for my website such as the chat box, attachments etc. 

Here’s the experimentation for making the website on atom; 

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed
Date: 8th Dec’2019
Professor: Marcela Godoy

Objective: Update about the final project

I was initially just making a website but after thoughtful consideration and feedback from the professor I have decided to add a magazine as well. The magazine is basically made for the re-made in china students and also has their work in it. I used the blogposts of my classmates to take their experiments photos and I had taken their consent before doing this.

This is my magazine progress so far:

Above, you can see that I have printed out, now I just need to attach the pages. 

Below, you can see that how the magazine’s pdf looks on my computer:

I have already updated about the website progress in the last blogpost and so far I juts utilized my time to work on the magazine.

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Date:4th dec’2019 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective: Record your experimentation done to test your hypothesis

For my final project since I am working on creating awareness and that I intend to do through sharing information, doing some experimentation myself etc. 

I found a very interesting way of making a new bioplastic on which I did the experimentation and that is;

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed
Date: 27th November 2019
Professor: Marcela Godoy

Objectives:

1.Post your thoughts on the readings.
2.Make a step-by-step list of what you will do in the next weeks to test your hypothesis.
3.Make a list of items or machines that you will need to perform the experiments.

Reading Response:

• Cradle to Cradle – A Question of Design

I really liked this reading and it did add a lot to what I already knew about cradle to cradle. Last semester, I had taken a class called “sustainable fashion” and we learn about cradle to cradle but after reading this it did add a lot to what I already knew about this. The Wikipedia defines cradle to cradle as “Cradle-to-cradle design is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature’s processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms.” It is a very sustainable way to use cradle to cradle because this framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. In cradle-to-cradle production, all material inputs and outputs are seen either as technical or biological nutrients. Technical nutrients can be recycled or reused with no loss of quality and biological nutrients composted or consumed. 

Then in the reading I really liked the crude part which talks about as those products are basically both producer and consumer friendly. They are long lasting, durable and affordable which makes them meet the expectations of the market. In the reading I also really liked the part where the author talked about, how the practices done in the past are very unsustainable and and just chase the economic growth and unintentionally most of the practices done are basically very depletive. Moreover, the author talks about how the old unsustainable practices are normal and not unethical because the past designers and engineers did not do something wrong, it’s just that they were using outdated practices. 

• Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic

I really found the reading very fascinating and helped me to learn about the politics of plastic. Moreover, it talked about how “fishing for plastics also seems to address the pollution of the seas, which not only affects water quality but also impairs the lives of many marine organisms. Images of dead seabirds that have starved from a stomach fullof plastic, together with tales offish and turtles who‘mistake’plastic forfood, and through ingesting this debris eventually die, are regular features ofscientific and public concern (Mooreet al.2001; Barneset al.2009).[.Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic]. This really made me feel how the depth of plastic has increased so much. 

Then, he talked about the carbon workers and how “in these processes of accumulating plastic hydrocarbons, the carbon work of humans and more-than-humans articulates distinct material-political relations to the seas. These material intra-actions within plastic oceans are part of what enables processes of materialization to even turn up as carbon work:plastic fragments turn up by accumulating over time in oceans, bodies and seas, and then become the object of clean-up campaigns or toxicity studies [.Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic]

Finally, the author concluded by saying that “many researchers have suggested–to deal with the problem of plastics contaminating oceans at the source, to strive either for a policy of minimal waste through redesign or to ensure that plastics do not travel, whether through wayward manufacturing or disposal, to seas. On the other hand, though, the current permeation of oceans and environments with plastics and their chemical residues suggests additional approaches to plastic waste as it already exists are also relevant. Largequantities of plastics continue to be generated and disposed of across estab-lished and emerging economies. Many of these economies currently lackwaste-handling infrastructures and manufacturing practices that would cap-ture plastic waste before it enters the environment. Hawkins (2010) suggests that it is useful to attend to the ways in which particular materialities may become manifest through environmental practices.”[.Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic]

2.Make a step-by-step list of what you will do in the next weeks to test your hypothesis.

1. Make a website 
2. add content
3. Add past information 
4. Add current experimentation 
5. Add experimentation currently done by my class peers 
6. make it available to my peers (website login)
7. will do some biomaterials experimentation myself

3.Make a list of items or machines that you will need to perform the experiments.

1. my own laptop to make website
2. other colleagues experimentation results with biomaterials 

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed 

Date: 18th November’2019 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective:

1. Post your thoughts on the workshop and readings.
2. Post your final project proposal

1. Thoughts on the workshop: 

I think the workshop was really interesting as it was a new way to test different sorts of materials and to some extent gave insights on testing different materials for the final project. It was basically a way to think critically and be more courageous in future to do testing with all sorts of materials which could replicate plastic. The class was divided in the groups and each group tested a different material which would basically help the students to collaborate and try new materials. All the instructions for testing the new material were already handed in to all the group members and they worked upon them. For instance, the potato start testing was done with the basic materials which are readily found in the homes so this gave a sense that not all the advance materials are required every time. 

I believe there were a lot of trial and errors and in the first time the desired results cannot be achieved and this needs a lot of perseverance and consistency.

2. Thoughts on the Reading:

The reading “The Truth about Bioplastics” was very interesting for me and helped me to built upon my prior knowledge about the bioplastic. It has long been though that the bioplastic could be a solution due to its numerous advantages such as “reduced use of fossil fuel resources, a smaller carbon footprint, and faster decomposition. Bioplastic is also less toxic and does not contain bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupter that is often found in traditional plastics.” However, the article highlights that the bioplastics are not really a solution to the grave problem of the plastics because they also enhance the issue and do not fully encounter the problem of carbon footprint and pollution. Therefore, the scientists every going struggle to find the best possible solution has not finished and they are looking for other ways other than the bioplastics. 

3. Post your final project proposal.

I will make my own plastic which would be a good substitute for the plastic which is readily used.The type of plastic I am fixing to make is of the natural type. It will basically be a home made plastic made using:

Milk
Vinegar
Large Pot
Larger Pot (needs to be the same size as the other, or larger).
Spoon, preferably plastic or metal
Strainer or Colander, the finer the better
Stove or other item with which to simmer milk.
Paper Towels, lots and lots of paper towels

4. Hypothesis

1. When I make the plastic will it be quite rigid when it’s thick (1/8 inch or thicker), moderately pliable when it’s a little thinner, and brittle if it’s paper thin.
2. Will my plastic material be sandable and paintable when tested.

5. Items and machines I will need for my experiment:

I will test the flexibility using; shredder, will use weighing scale and the items mentioned above. 

My second idea for the project is to basically:

I will do more research to basically find the plastics being used in Shanghai the most, how me can reduce their use through creating awareness, I am thinking to make a website, with the facts on to make people know what is actually happening and then have a QR code and create awareness about the biodegradable plastics through my testing (incorporating photos of my testing on to the website). So basically, it will have three parts 

1. Research 
2. testing and what products could be made out of it 
3. making instructables for the replication in future 

Hypothesis:

• My website will create awareness amongst the people of all ages 
• My website will influence people to replicate the designs 
• all age groups will at least try once to replicate 
• my website will have new alternatives to plastics which will help to make new products 

Feedback from the Professor:

• make a collaborative website where everyone from the class could login, add content and ask questions 
• this would be effective and different because people have websites working on awareness lately but never had chat bots which could answer the questions and help them out with the quantity needed etc 
• it would also be effective because a lot of the classmates are working on testing materials so they would be good to add instructions and help the users in future 

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Date: 6th November’ 2019

Objective: 

Document and post your discoveries and thoughts on the workshop and readings.

Read the two readings;

• Collective Responsibility Social Innovation in China
• Circular Business Models Developing a Sustainable Future, Mats Larsson Multiple-Helix Collaboration for the Development of a Circular Economy

Workshop:

Adele from “Precious Plastic” came to give a workshop on making us help make a stool. We started with the introduction about Precious Plastic and how it was started in Shanghai. It was very interesting to hear how they started from a small scale and took it to a larger scale. This shows that you just need motivation to keep moving forward even though you would face many setbacks in the way. 

For making the stool we first sorted out all the plastic and then we had to shred the plastic. After shredding the plastic we put it in the oven and then heated it on 180 degrees. After that Marcela and Adele pressed it an added more shredded plastic and then put it in the oven again. After that the plastic took a long time and I waited until 5pm to see the results and then the plastic had melted and then they took it out and then pressed it again. They left it in the press for a long time so that the it could be a smooth surface. The stool however, could not be fully completed due to time constraints so we just got the upper seat part of the stool and did not work on the legs of the stool. 

Here are some photos from the workshop:

Readings Response

I really found the two readings really interesting and my takeaway from the first readings “Collective Responsibility Social Innovation in China” is that China is a very big country in size and population therefore, in order to address the big problems in China which are being addressed by the social enterprise, many stakeholder would need to work together and then only the will be able to Bring a collective impactful impact. But, we know that as this would bring a vast amount of opportunities so then we must not be hesitant to fact the challenges which are brought up with the opportunities. Thus, we can only stay positive and look forward to more and more opportunities for the social innovation by non-profit and profit organizations. 

The second reading was also very meaningful and the biggest takeaways for me were; that different authorities play different role for a project and for me the individual role was very important because as they are the real buyers of the products produced. “Through purchases, people every day decide which companies to support. Every time a person goes shopping he or she selects a number of products. Purchases could be viewed as votes in favour of some companies and votes against others, the ones that a particular customer decides not to purchase goods or services from.”Therefore,”One of the challenges related to the development of a circular econ- omy is to persuade the powerful community of consumers to increasingly demand products from companies that apply circular models and buy less from companies that do not. Without large numbers of consumers or procurement officers at companies that put circularity ahead of other criteria, it will be difficult for the circular economy and companies with offerings based on circular flows to grow.” Here, we can see that the main key players in the industry are actually the consumers and we play the biggest difference. I myself, being a consumer need to reflect on my practices because my decision would affect the future of the industry and would decide if the circular model will be prevalent or not. This made me realize about my importance as a buyer and how I need to be really careful and in future shift my choices If I want to have a change and bring a positive impact to my community. Thus, we need to be more cautious and focus on what Mats Larrson said, “The enemy, as many people have already realized, is us!” 

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Date: 6th November’2019

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective:

Find local craft techniques, and find local materials that Chinese people have been using. Is there any technique we can replicate using plastic? Do you think we can replicate those materials using plastic?

Research about plastic solutions and post it on your journal.Choose one between “Design Is The Problem” and “Bio-Thinking” as an evaluation framework or tool for assessing the sustainability of your these solutions.

Chinese Craft:

Whenever I think about Chinese craft Chinese Fan,  is the first thing that comes to my mind as I have always watched this in movies to represent Chinese Culture. “The history of Chinese fan can be dated to over 3,000 years ago, around the Shang Dynasty (C.16th-11th BC). … Later this Shanhan became a long-handled fan made of thin and tough silk or birds’ feathers, called a zhangshan fan, which was mainly used by the emperor’s honour guard as decoration.”

I think we can make Chinese fan using plastic because I think it would be really nice to have plastic inlace of the materials already being used. The material used to make the fan is really of thin nature therefore, we would need to use a thin natured plastic fully compressed in order to make a fan. We would also either need to use mold or we can laser cut later to give it the fan shape. 

Response:

Research on the Famous Companies working in China for Recycling Plastic 

1)Shanghai Yadu Plastic Co Ltd:

I have never heard about this comply before but after reading more about the work they do I was really impressed as they are making an impact in the plastic recycling industry in China.Their main products are PE and PP woven coating fabrics, printing paper molds, triplicate composite aluminum, blowing bags, printing of bump version. I had never thought that these items could be made and would provide an effective suction to the plastic waste.

2)Kuusakoski Recycling:

References:

https://www.chinadailyhk.com/articles/85/48/241/1550217148425.html

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/01/c_137644567.htm

https://www.kuusakoski.com/en/china/

Home

A Plastic Recycling Revolution Is Brewing … in China

Name: Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Date: 28th Oct 2019 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

Objective: Write midterm project documentation 

Title for the Project:  “PakiCraft”- 

I did not have a name for my project until last moment and then I got a chance to talk to the founder of the AfriCraft and found out his idea behind the name of the up-cycling/ recycling company he is running. Therefore, I thought it would be pretty interesting to have a broad category of PakiCraft which could be later use by me to broaden my work from just apparels to other sorts of useful crafts as well. 

Statement for the Project:

“Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live.” —Gianni Versace

I designed shirt basically out of trash. It will inspire the people that we do not have to follow the trends instead we must create our own trends and express problems through our clothing.  Therefore, wearable will represent the trash management problem in Pakistan and how this trash could be efficiently converted into wearables and create more employment. 

Materials Used- 

Process: 

I started with first taking a sac and then cutting it into the shape of a shirt. After that a sewed it and then started to work on the pockets. I made pockets out of the another colored sacs and then made it borders using the handle of a plastic delivery bag. Then I sewed it. After that, I sewed the end of the pockets and the sleeves and then also sewed the borders of the shirt to make it look neater. It was pretty harder to work on this sac material and it got really messy at times as well because the threads started to come out. For making the geometric design at the two borders of the shirt I used different colored plastic tapes and sticked them. Finally, for the dupatta (which is very important part of a shirt in Pakistan) I used the packaging material of white colored and then I sticked embroidery pieces (which I found on trash) on to it. 

Significane: 

 I started with designing a wearable but that was Pakistani Kurta style. The Kurta is mainly made up of plastic as Pakistan and trash bags because PAKISTAN is a developing country and has a lot of waste management issues. The maximum usage there is of plastic because people are not really aware of the bad effects of the plastic due to low literacy rate and low encouragement by the government to decrease the usage of plastic and move towards sustainability. Recently, in the capital of Pakistan plastic was banned but still the policy was eloped without almost no implementation so this project will HIGHLIGHT the issue. Therefore, my project of making a wearable will actually help the fashion designer in my country to think more about the environment and try to help them in thinking in the direction of making apparels in future out of the huge amount of trash which is being generated in Pakistan. hopefully it will be replicated in large scale and will bring a new wave of environment protection in future and also become a NEW TREND. Moreover, I also hope to see newbies like me bringing a new wave and not being afraid of starting a new venture and taking risk to develop things out of trash. 

Final Output looks like this: