About / Problem / Narrowing Problem Scope / Ensuring Fit / Solution / Closing Thoughts
This was a 24-hour project submitted to WFN's Product Design Sprint 2020 by my team (Justine, Yvone, and I). View our pitch deck here and demo here.
Every year, approximately 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced, with close to 80% of these plastics accumulating in the natural environment and oceans. Of particular concern, plastic pollution can consist of single-use plastics (which are everywhere) and micro-plastics (which are near impossible to extract from oceans). These plastics are made from toxic compounds; when they break down, harmful chemicals are released into the surrounding air and water. They can also emit greenhouse gas emissions as they degrade, furthering global warming, which in turn result in more natural disasters.
Thus, the implications of this plastic pollution can range widely - from affecting the health of marine animals, wildlife, and humans, to damaging habits and ecosystems, to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, to impacting tourism, and more.
So the key question is:
<aside> ✨ How might we help reduce plastic pollution produced each year in any setting? (ex. households, oceans, businesses, etc.)
</aside>
To narrow down the scope of the problem space, preliminary research was conducted to identify the key drivers of plastic waste as a personal goal of the team was to design a high-impact solution.
As the team was particularly moved by the following quote, the food services industry was chosen.
In 2014, out of the 258 million tons of municipal solid waste generated in the US, more than 63 percent was of packaging materials (for food and other purposes) [Source]
As the industry at large is a key factor in our potential solution, additional research was conducted to further understand industry trends. In general, it was found that 70% of businesses anticipate becoming more environmentally conscious in the next two years and that organizations who focused sustainability efforts in customer-operations have consistently generated above-average growth rates and profit margins.
<aside> 🎯 Therefore, we narrowed the scope of our problem space to focus on customer-operations within the food services industry.
</aside>
After identifying the problem space, the next step was to better understand the other key stakeholder in our problem space—the consumer. We wanted to develop a better understanding of consumer sentiments regarding the issue of plastic waste within the food services industry. In order to do so, user interviews were conducted in combination with further research into academic papers to get an unbiased understanding of this problem.
User Interviews
Note: Our sampling population coincidentally consisted of primarily Millennials/Gen-Z individuals
Academic Papers
Overwhelmingly, most (93.7%) Canadian consumers were personally motivated to reduce consumption of single-use plastic food packaging.
Source: Link
Note: the original study could not be located so this is from a 2021 study which echoed similar sentiments
From our findings, the following was clear: