Remade in China F20

Watch:

• Precious Plastic – Safety and plastic fumes

• Precious Plastic – Create things from plastic

Assignment 7

• Experiments

Document your experiments and findings on creating your new material. How can you make it perfect? What are the techniques that you can use to create an object out of your new material? Master the technique you want to use and document your failures and successes in your journal.

Project Title: five minutes

Through our own observations at Sproutworks and conversations with the staff at Sproutworks, we find they are content with the process at the cafeteria and don’t necessarily want change. However, in terms of the staff’s welfare, there are some areas for improvement. Staff work from early morning to around 8 pm. They will have two or three hours free in the afternoon (around 2-4 pm), but for the most part of the day, they are constantly busy. And for each meal prep and service i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner, they are only allowed five minutes of break in each of the more than three hours of working time. We saw a few stools next to the counter that allowed them to rest for a few minutes. But without back support, it can not be called a comfortable chair for rest. We decided to create a portable and adjustable backrest for stools. When the backrest is not in use, it will be folded down so it won’t look obtrude in front of the food counter. The back material will be made from presses of plastic bags and foams. And the stem, the structural part will use wood with plastic connection points.

We have experimented with the main backrest’s material but we still need to experiment with the material for the stem part of the backrest. We are also trying to finalize the mechanism and the design by the end of next week.

In the experiment, we tried plastic and plastic with foam. For the plastic, we collected all the plastic bags from our friends and classmates, however, most of which we collected does not have a clear label about their type on them. This makes our usable material much less than we collected. We picked up all plastic bags labeled as 2, following the instructions given by the guest speaker in the lectures, we heated them up at the temperature of 160-celsius degrees. 10 seconds each side, however, since we put several layers together, we found it hard for us to make them sticky to each other within only 20 seconds (10*2), therefore, we put our materials in the pressure machine, again and again, each time 10 seconds, and check the results each time. However, after 6 times of this repetition, we found out that our materials shrink, what is worse, they are still not sticky enough, which made us frustrated. Then, we added some foam inside the plastics and repeated the same work. Not only did our material softer, which is good for our project–back support, but it also made plastics be more sticky to each other. We were really glad about our finding until we acknowledged the fact that foam should not be heated, since heating it will make it no longer recyclable. Then, we searched on the website about how to make plastic more soft and flat. And we found out that it might be better if we heat up one layer of plastic one by one, and then heat them all together. We are going to try this technique next week. 

• For the 2nd round of meeting with CP 

Group work: document the meeting. Do a debrief afterward. Create one blog post as a group and submit the same post in your journal. 

Individual work:  use the 4Fs: Facts, Feelings, Findings, Future method to reflect on your experience working with CP so far. See Chunhao’s example below. Upload on the blog.

 

Meetings with Sproutworks Staff
Facts: 

• Long work shifts; Long working time 
• They feel like they are just doing a job, which is not that burdensome.
• Having limited places to rest
• Long preparation time between shifts
• People throw metal cups in the trash bins
• Too much tissue waste

 

Feelings:

• Shocked by their long working hours
• Shocked by the fact that they need to spend so many hours preparing the food and cleaning the table
• Previously thought they only work in the meal hours
• Show more respect for them

 

Findings:

• They have only one cold meeting room to rest
• The soft sofa is outside their workplace, and they are afraid of people seeing them relaxing
• The only place they can take a rest in their workspace is the four stools.

 

Futures:

• Put the metal cups back in the recycle places
• Reduce food waste
• Classify the wastes correctly
• Reduce the tissue waste, only take the amount that I need

 

Besides all of these, since we did not have a mature idea in mind, we decided to go downstairs and asked more questions towards the staff during the lecture. However, this unexpected conversation made some of them uncomfortable, feeling embarrassed, awkward, etc. We have learned that service-learning is not only about designing something for them but more importantly, we need to build a closer connection with them in order to know more about them, so as to design things that are really helpful for them. 

 

• Find References

Find interesting sustainable solutions that inspire you to experiment. Start a Tumblr or Pinterest account to keep them all in one place, post the link to it in your journal. Select the three most relevant and describe what’s interesting for you in this project. At least one of these three should be related to plastic recycling or alternatives to plastic. Evaluate each of them from the point of view of sustainability. Use what you have learned from the readings to support your evaluation. Reference accordingly.

Reference1: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/174936766764674123/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Recycled HDPE Mallet

This design is simply recycling the HDPE materials into a new shape, which can be used as a mallet. We can easily find out from the video that the HDPE materials will be polished a lot in order to meet the requirement of a cylinder. In this process, actually, a lot of little pieces of HDPE will be wasted, and they can hardly be made into new objects. Also, I really doubt if the HDPE mallet can be used to pound on some food ingredients. Therefore, although this mallet can be used for a long time, I do not think it is sustainable enough.

Reference2:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/50806302034005078/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Blooming Jewels-Recycled Bottles into Amazing Jewelry

This design is quite simple and does not even need to heat up the plastic bottles. The designer just simply cut the plastic bottles into small circle pieces and string all of them together to create beautiful jewelry. I think this jewelry can be used for a long time, even if the users do not want them anymore, we can still simply recycle them into other new pieces of art or products. Therefore, from my perspective, this design has a relatively high sustainable level.

Reference3:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/12877548922076772/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Upcycle: When sawdust meets plastic bags…

In this series of designs, I saw some familiar products, such as the chair, however, there is also something new to me, the lamp. The lamp is in beautiful shape together with fancy colors. I think this is not only easy to produce but also really useful and can last long. Pretty high level of sustainability.

• Learn from China

As part of your research for your final project, find local craft techniques, and find local materials that Chinese people have been using. You can also add them to your Pinterest or Tumblr account. Select the three most interesting and describe its potential. Is there any technique we can replicate using plastic? Do you think we can replicate those materials using plastic?

Idea1:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/202802789454754390/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Paper Lanterns-Recycled Plastic Lanterns

Paper lanterns are a very unique and traditional craft in China, I think it may be possible for us to use recycled plastic bags as the materials of this special craft.

Idea2:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/482237072597429025/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Folded Secrets-Thread Books

This is a simple technique to fold things into a book. This design is originated from the Miao people in China, and it is quite simple that almost all people can learn and do this on their own. Also, the thread has its tenacity, which may be regarded as one similar property that plastics may have. Therefore, it is possible and approachable for us to recycle the plastic and fold them into thread books, hopefully, we can replicate it and spread it to the world.

Idea3:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/95842298296426721/?nic_v2=1a6OxHh2R

Chinese New Year Art

This is one of the Chinese traditional fans. I think it may be hard for us to make the recycled plastic really elastic and capable of being folded. Therefore, fans like this may hard to realize, however, we can do the round fan, which is also a kind of traditional Chinese New Year art.

• Observe

Create a list of trash that you can collect from the AB, the dorms, or your house. Considering your previous proposals, specify the type of trash you will be using and describe how you will turn it into new material.

1. Plastic bottles (Juices/Coke/Mineral Water/Bubble Tea)
2. Plastic bags (Bubble Tea/Delivery/Food Delivery)
3. Plastic tableware (Food Delivery)
4. Food Container (Food Delivery/Bubble Tea)
5. Straws (Bubble Tea/Coke)
6. Tissues (Cafeteria/Café)
7. Boxes (Packages/Delivery)

• Experiment

In the process.

• Meeting with Community Partner

In the process.

PROJECT TITLE: Antithesis

PROJECT STATEMENT:                                                   

Remnants of Human Products

¡The artists want to recreate some ordinary but largely unnoticed objects from the past on earth. The artwork consists of two sides, one primarily through card boxes and packaging bags, and the other focuses on food waste. The two types of garbage are all byproducts of the fast-growing industry, but they speak for different points in the development.

On one side, the convenience provided by the delivery system comes with a bunch of waste. In a Fast company article published in 2018, “Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items worldwide last year through Prime alone.” From just one online retailer, we see the creation of countless packaging, including boxes and plastic buffers, and bags. It is doubtful if many or even a few of the packaging endure weeks after delivery. Also, the massive usage of the package causes damage to environmental resources like trees. The company article further expresses: “LimeLoop used data from USPS, FedEx, and UPS to estimate that around 165 billion packages are shipped in the U.S. each year, and then roughly calculated that the cardboard used would equate to more than 1 billion trees (this calculation didn’t account for the fact that some packaging is not made from paper or cardboard, but it gives a sense of scale). As online shopping continues to grow, so will the impact.” We were faced with this apparent overuse of trees and natural resources like fossil fuels, but we decided to ignore such warnings.

On the other side, we are engaged in the culinary world of the past. The immerse food waste experience shows the awful ramification of our wrongful behavior from the past. According to Future Direction, “Globally one-third of the food produced for human consumption – approximately 1.3 billion tons – is lost or wasted each year. Food loss and waste occur at various stages of the food supply chain, from harvest to the final stage of household consumption.” In all process of food, most food is wasted at the consumer stage.” outside of Chinese homes. Restaurants account for most food waste, with 19 percent of food waste attributed to these establishments and about five to seven percent of food wasted in homes or canteens.” The increasing food choice and the restaurant and shop’s marketing could be made our ancestors think that we did not need to worry about food supply anymore. But it is not. We now only have the options of Food tubes, tubes of energy intakes. The idea of culinary has become a part of history.

Of course, not all the “waste” from the past are “approachable.” The antithesis between the food and the packaging shows such contrast in different waste types in the past. The nature of development is a double-sword: convenience and waste of resources. Using these daily objects from life on earth, we want to illustrate a relatively realistic picture of the other world and the problems we once faced. Both the escalation of boxes and packaging in the front and the hanging food waste bag and videos in the back demonstrate such increasing warning levels in our past, and we decided not to solve it. We want to encourage people on this new planet to save a little bit more than they feel like. We can do better, whatever the format is.” On this new planet, we cannot go on this path again.

RESEARCH (Sproutworks)

Art Installation: 

Problems Identified:

1. Tissue Usage

According to words from the staff working at Sproutworks:

Six boxes of tissues are needed per week on average. One box has 20 rolls or bags of tissues. Therefore, more than 120 rolls are used per week.

We observed that many students will take several tissues that exceed the number that they needed. Part of the reason is that it is hard to draw exactly one piece of tissue, especially when you are in a hurry, it is much likely that you will draw out more than you need. After using a piece of tissue, they found out that there are still some clean tissues, there will be three different kinds of solution. Some put them into their pocket, which we can assume that they are going to use these tissues later on. Others simply leave them on the table, but in most cases, the future users of that table will not tend to use them. And the third way, which is also the most popular way, is to rub the clean ones together with the dirty ones and throw them into the rubbish bin. This really brings about a lot of tissue waste. To talk about this issue in a much broader and macro way, this can be regarded as a waste of natural resources, which causes many future problems. For example, deforestation.

2. Cup Problem

According to words from the staff working at Sproutworks:

Sproutworks loses about 1000 cups every two months.

From last year, when the metal cups were first introduced and used by the Sproutworks in the NYU Shanghai community, half of the cups have been lost till now. Not only do students take them back home, but, what shocked us the most, some of the students even threw those metal cups into the garbage bin. It is hard to figure out the true reason behind their behavior. It could be that they did not know that those metal cups could be recycled. It could be that they did not notice that it was their responsibility to return those metal cups back to certain places.

3. Staff Scheduling

According to words from the staff working at Sproutworks:

The staff works from early morning to around 8 pm with a few hours of rest in the afternoon.

The staff working in the Sproutworks have to finish all the three shifts per day. Approximately, there are over 1,800 students eating in the cafeteria, therefore, during their working hours, they are quite busy, which we can easily imagine. Also, the nominated one-and-a-half working hours are far less than their working hours in reality. Beyond our expectations, their most important and time-consuming tasks are actually the food preparation before the canteen hours and the cleaning- up after people finish their meals. Therefore, between every two working shifts, they actually only have less than 1 hour to take a rest. To be worse, they do not even have a relaxation place, and the only possible small place for them to rest is the hard and cold meeting room next to the cafeteria.

 

CONCLUSIONS (Possible Solutions):

1. A machine to restrict the number of tissues taken at a time. / A tissue holder that has a narrower opening./ …

2. QR code on cups to prevent loss/ misplacing./ Usage of different cups, porcelain cups, or heavier cups (such as cups in IKEA cafe? )/ …

3. Create an app to increase the efficiency of meal preparation and cleanup.

Research Plan (Current focuses shown in this Brainstorm Chart below) 

Exhibition Proposal: 

Art Installation:

Videos about the plastic bottle usages, in order to arouse people’s awareness of bringing their own cups all the time, or at least, paying more attention to the metal cups that Sproutworks are currently providing in the Café. 

Mountains for tissues or tissue boxes(considering the waste and feasibility). According to the staff working in the cafeteria of NYU Shanghai, since the tissues are free, there will be a need for about 6 boxes of tissues per day. Really huge amount, and do we really need that many tissues? It is worth us thinking!