Abstract

In today's world of increasingly environmentally conscious consumers, new markets are being developed to help supply customer demand. For designers, this is an opportunity to rethink the way many existing products are produced and marketed. New sustainable approaches are starting to be applied throughout the industry but are still in their infancy for most markets. Office furniture is an example of a pre-existing market that is yet to fully embrace environmental ideologies and thus can now be seen as an emerging space for new and innovative design.

Recycling soft plastic can be difficult compared to other plastics, and in Australia is currently only done by a few specialised manufacturers who have developed methods of processing mixed soft plastic. Nevertheless, in an ever-growing environmentally conscious society, there needs to be continued development in alternative ways to prolong the life span of these soft plastics. Finding a new solution to recycling this material that does not require the use of expensive facilities, along with capturing the data observed and producing a method for processing, would be of great value to the recycling industry in Australia.

This, combined with introducing the recycled material into an existing market such as office furniture should not only help promote the functionality of the material but also inspire other manufacturers to consider using it as well. This project will use research-led design to explore the world of soft plastic recycling to produce an office chair made from soft plastic. In order to do so, the current industry revolving around soft plastic and recycling will be investigated along with scientific reports, news articles, waste policies and material experimentation.

Design Intent

Recycling plastic is a given when designing for a circular economy. Companies have been taking the leap and replacing their virgin (new) plastic products with recycled material to reduce pollution and global waste, but they are few and far between. With Australia’s targets of increasing plastic collection to 80% by 2023 (CSIRO 2021), more ways to reuse plastic will need to be implemented. Currently, this poses an issue with soft plastic, as it is one of the more difficult plastics to recycle due to its polymer strains being mixed when reclaimed.

This study takes a closer look into the processes involved with repurposing soft plastic in an aim to simplify its reuse and to find a viable new application for seating. The goal of producing office seating made with or from recycled soft plastic has posed a challenge, as there are no other examples that currently exist.

Applying the principles of Research Through Design Through Research (Wolfgang Jonas 2007), LDPE (Low-Density Poly Ethylene) soft plastic bags have been successfully adapted into 4-4.5mm thick sheets. They are capable of holding approximately 178.57 newtons per square cm. The bags were sourced from a banana farm located in Northern Queensland, where they were used to create a micro-ecosystem to help ripen bananas and protect them from bugs.

The outcomes of this study appear to be the first of their kind and are a great success for this material. The new sheets created informed the design for the rest of the study and were applied to the context of office seating. The final design harnesses the unique characteristics discovered in the research findings to help display the possibilities of this new material made from recycled soft plastic bags.

Bio

Fraser uses design as a space to explore sustainable, tangible societal interaction and sculptural form study. With a bachelor’s degree and honours in product design, he seeks refined engagement with people where practical solutions can solve socio-environmental problems. He chooses to harness the unique qualities found in craft skills and applies them to a post-modern design landscape, primarily using traditional design methods such as drawing and sculpting to inform his practice.

He believes that doing so not only grounds the product directly to its counterpart problem but ensures viable and practical solutions. The core of his design methodology is taking unconventional, sustainable approaches to better the environment and the future of design.

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