UpCycle Design Project
Why:
Single use plastic bags are polluting our environment and filling up our landfills at a catastrophic rate. Buildup of plastic is detrimental to the food supply of many animals, especially aquatic species. Single use plastic bags offer very little to our society. Often, grocery shoppers receive five to six single use bags per trip and simply discard them once they reach home. According to biological diversity, a typical family uses one thousand five hundred bags per year and recycles less than one percent of them. The best case scenario right now is that people will try to reuse these bags in their homes. Unfortunately, sooner or later, single use plastic bags end up being thrown away. In this way, they contribute considerably to the municipal solid waste stream.
What:
Our product is The Bootleg Bag, a reusable bag made from recycled single-use plastic bags woven and braided together. Our initial prototypes took between two and three hours to complete. We believed that labor cost would make our first prototype far to expensive to market. We decided to build a loom to facilitate the assembly process and managed to reduce manufacturing time to thirty-to-forty-five minutes. This allows us to market our product within our consumer price range: $5-20. We plan to sell the product for ten dollars. Our interviewees prioritized cost effectiveness, environmental impact, and durability or strength. Secondary qualities that were seen as desirable were washability, portability, and longevity. Our product utilizes a single raw material: plastic. This material is both durable and easily manufactured. Our product is an effective way to recycle because it uses between fifteen and twenty bags per unit.
How:
To take our Bootleg bag from production to distribution, we have a 4-step production process: collection, assembly, marketing, and shipping. We would collect bags using receptacles placed in grocery stores and other public places. This will secure a supply line for the most important raw resource for the production process. Other possibilities include partnering with local garbage companies. They could sort out plastic bags and sell them to us for a fraction of a penny per unit. The plastic bags have the bottoms and handles cut off, and they're then cut into 4 equal strips. These loops are then slip knotted together. The vertical portion of the weave takes 19 strips tied together and wrapped around the screws, and the horizontal portion has more strips added as needed so that the weaving isn't unwieldy. At the end the strips are tied off in knots. The handles have 3 2-strip lengths of plastic braided together and tied off at the ends, which are then incorporated into the weave. The final product has the two plastic textiles practically sewn together with one last chain of plastic strips. Initially, it would be mostly marketed online on websites such as Amazon. It could also be offered in checkout lines at stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes. In order to keep shipping consistent, we would use the US Post Office Flat Rate Shipping. We could ship a box of 20 for 35 cents per unit or a box of 120 for 16 cents per unit.
Single use plastic bags are polluting our environment and filling up our landfills at a catastrophic rate. Buildup of plastic is detrimental to the food supply of many animals, especially aquatic species. Single use plastic bags offer very little to our society. Often, grocery shoppers receive five to six single use bags per trip and simply discard them once they reach home. According to biological diversity, a typical family uses one thousand five hundred bags per year and recycles less than one percent of them. The best case scenario right now is that people will try to reuse these bags in their homes. Unfortunately, sooner or later, single use plastic bags end up being thrown away. In this way, they contribute considerably to the municipal solid waste stream.
What:
Our product is The Bootleg Bag, a reusable bag made from recycled single-use plastic bags woven and braided together. Our initial prototypes took between two and three hours to complete. We believed that labor cost would make our first prototype far to expensive to market. We decided to build a loom to facilitate the assembly process and managed to reduce manufacturing time to thirty-to-forty-five minutes. This allows us to market our product within our consumer price range: $5-20. We plan to sell the product for ten dollars. Our interviewees prioritized cost effectiveness, environmental impact, and durability or strength. Secondary qualities that were seen as desirable were washability, portability, and longevity. Our product utilizes a single raw material: plastic. This material is both durable and easily manufactured. Our product is an effective way to recycle because it uses between fifteen and twenty bags per unit.
How:
To take our Bootleg bag from production to distribution, we have a 4-step production process: collection, assembly, marketing, and shipping. We would collect bags using receptacles placed in grocery stores and other public places. This will secure a supply line for the most important raw resource for the production process. Other possibilities include partnering with local garbage companies. They could sort out plastic bags and sell them to us for a fraction of a penny per unit. The plastic bags have the bottoms and handles cut off, and they're then cut into 4 equal strips. These loops are then slip knotted together. The vertical portion of the weave takes 19 strips tied together and wrapped around the screws, and the horizontal portion has more strips added as needed so that the weaving isn't unwieldy. At the end the strips are tied off in knots. The handles have 3 2-strip lengths of plastic braided together and tied off at the ends, which are then incorporated into the weave. The final product has the two plastic textiles practically sewn together with one last chain of plastic strips. Initially, it would be mostly marketed online on websites such as Amazon. It could also be offered in checkout lines at stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes. In order to keep shipping consistent, we would use the US Post Office Flat Rate Shipping. We could ship a box of 20 for 35 cents per unit or a box of 120 for 16 cents per unit.
2 Teammates
