Reducing Plastic Waste in Taipei

Ambition

How can we reduce plastic packaging waste for children’s toys?

Roles and Responsibilities

UX Design: Sketches, Wireframing, User Interface Design, Prototyping

Graphic Design: Branding, Mockup creation

Project Context

When: Fall 2022

Timeline: 8 weeks

Tools used: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop

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Summary

The motivation behind this self-led project was to reduce plastic waste in children's toy packaging by designing an eco-friendly alternative. The solution explore was the use of strong paper material boxes combined with digital interaction.

I researched sustainable packaging solutions, and designed box packaging optimized for origami creation. The packaging also includes a QR code for digital interactivity that allows children to play with the virtual version of the origami they create and scan.

The result was an innovative packaging design that reduces plastic waste, and promotes cognitive skill development through origami, providing a fun, eco-friendly experience for children and their families.

🎯 Problem

I lived in Taipei, Taiwan, during my second academic semester of 2022. Observing the environment around me and reading more about environmental problems, the impact caused by the excessive use of plastic caught my attention.

According to “Our World in Data,” packaging is the dominant use of primary plastics, which caught my attention to the amount of plastic utilized in a few local stores in Taipei, especially for children’s products.

💡 Insight

How can we reduce plastic packaging waste when considering children’s toys?

My goal with this passion project was to develop an alternative to plastic packaging for kid’s toys, adding value to the packaging and utilizing digital alternatives.

Approach to Problem:

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Initial approach:

I started by brainstorming feasible and practical alternatives to the current plastic packaging. As a massive fan of lego, I used some of their plastic product packagings as the reference to base my brainstorming process

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What solution did I come to?

I concluded that we could use strong paper boxes instead of using plastic bags or plastic boxes to store toys. With a cheaper material, the solution’s value comes from what children can do with the package.

• Scanning the QR code from the packaging, the kids are taken to tutorials online on the company’s website, which would help assimilate the company with sustainability and fun!

• After detaching the removable square paper from the box packaging, children can follow the origami tutorials with the help of their families. This helps kids to practice cognitive skills with manual creative activities and have more meaningful family time.

• When the origami is finished, children can scan their new toys and see them as digital friends. The children can now participate in the storytelling process and create their world.

Learnings:

• In this passion project, aiming to find creative solutions to a critical environmental issue, I learned how to empathize with the audience: children and companies worldwide. I also learned how to utilize analogical solutions to explore digital opportunities, inspiring innovative approaches to common everyday problems.

• The result was a simple change in the packaging, exploring a less environmentally harmful material for packaging with the additional feature of a QR Code. Thinking of the children, the users of the toys, I thought of a solution that allows them to have fun with the packaging, spend more quality time with their families and give life to their self-made new paper toys.

Next Steps:

• If I had more resources for this project, I would like to develop and test the physical solution with children. I would evaluate the level of difficulty it is to open the packaging as I designed to then create origami from it. After observations and interviews with children and toy companies, I would improve the solution in terms of usability and practicality.