Week 10: Final Project Proposal (Part 2)

Name: Eva Solo

Date: 27/11/19 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

• Kites:

As I wanted to create something with an aesthetically developed appearance, I considered kites as an option for my project. They are very popular amongst children, from what I have observed in Shanghai, so I thought creating a tutorial on how to create a fully recyclable kite would be a way of introducing sustainability awareness geared towards this demographic. 

As I began breaking down the different parts of the kite infrastructure, and how I could create these elements using waste, I had a conversation with my Professor.  She rose a very important point that I had not considered yet. I was so exited to jump start to the hands-on portion of production, I had not thought how much more waste a lost kite could create, and would go to the complete opposite side of impact from my intentions. Marcela mentioned Patagonia’s project ‘Logo Disk’, which is a frisbee created from 15% recycled plastics and the seed was planted in my head.

• Frisbee:

Following that conversation, I broke down the main elements that my project would represent: 1) Consciousness towards Up-Scaling 2) Recyclable materials 3) Children as the targeted demographic — DYI / Creativity 3) Modifying an already existing idea (Logo Disk) towards reaching the next step of sustainability: 100% recycled plastic frisbee + as a bonus I am able to explore artistic expression [as I think melting plastic creates a perfectly unpredictable pattern].

As I was bouncing some ideas aloud, Sophia was interested in developing this idea forward, as she already was focusing on creating awareness for children. I usually tend to prefer working alone, but from our initial conversation we shared a lot of the same perspectives, and she was genuinely as interested in creating this idea, rather than ‘an assignment’. as I was, so we decided to proceed.

• Proposal:

For our final Remade In China project, Sofia and I will be creating a one-hundred percent recyclable frisbee, from plastic waste. After reflecting on the Precious Plastic lead lecture, where we created a stool, as well as some consultations from Marcela and Andy, we created an outline of steps, keeping in mind our hypothesis: “A frisbee, created from shredded and melted plastics #2 and #4, will be aerodynamic, meaning will be able to fly.” To go along with our ‘final product’, we also want to make it scalable, meaning we will be creating a DYI (*do it yourself) guide that families can potentially follow at home. 

Steps:

1. Collect Plastics #2 and #4. Gather our own waste, which includes bottle caps, coffee cup lids, packaging from shampoo/conditioner/detergent containers, as well as the same type of waste around campus.
2. Shred the plastics, we collected, in our plastic shredder.
3. Find a mould. Potentially considering using two pans, although the ones we have in the lab are too big in diameter, so currently scouting for an alternative. 
4. Prepare for melting: wax mould, pre-heat the oven, place plastic shreds into the pan, place pan into the oven.
5. After ~60minutes, press down with another pan using the press and wood cubes.
6. Allow time for cooling.
7. Shape the melted material: cut corners, sand surface, scope the inside to control the thickness density – as balanced weight  throughout the area is the number one element that will determine the aerodynamic qualities. I was reading this article from a study at MIT which discussed the physics of frisbee, and although some of the calculations seemed more complex than what I was looking for, circular balance – was what I took away. 
8. Test it’s flying ability.
9. Evaluate the possibility of recreation, self-evaluate our biases (eg. we have gained a lot of new discoveries over this course, and if we want to produce a guide to make this frisbee, with the addition of awareness information, we cannot look over the fact that others might not know the information that comes to us as foundational basics now).
10. Repeat, to asses validity of hypothesis.