Changing design thinking under the circular economy
Early discussions of "green design" typically focused on the selection and management of materials, reducing packaging and transportation methods, and ultimately preventing environmental pollution during disposal. This approach was based on the "4Rs" (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Replace) concept of a green lifecycle, aiming to reduce pollution and improve the global ecological impact. However, with the international trend toward sustainable development and the shift to green industries, design thinking has also evolved.
In the past, product designers primarily considered user needs and experiences during the design and development process, emphasizing product-level considerations such as aesthetics, material durability and tactility, and usability and smooth operation. However, today's product design emphasizes more than just a cool look or the use of green materials; it also aims to be environmentally friendly and sustainable, ensuring that even at the end of a product's lifecycle, it does not burden the environment. Therefore, we must evolve from green design to circular design. While "circular design" shares a user-centric, customer-oriented approach with traditional product design, it differs in that it prioritizes dematerialization, the use of sustainable materials with circular economy value, and recycling systems, while holistically considering commercial value. By examining the circular benefits of products from both the tangible and the intangible, we seek creative solutions to various issues and open up new possibilities.
►Figure 1. Design Path Towards a Dematerialized Circular Economy (Compiled and drawn by the author)
To put it simply and intuitively, in the past, in order to attract attention and increase selling points, products were mostly designed using an "additive design" approach. However, with the rise of green consumption, the principle of "subtractive design" is advocated. This is people-oriented and the approach of "keeping things simple" is more deeply rooted in people's minds. When designing and manufacturing products, it is necessary to maintain a simple and straightforward design concept as much as possible, using less materials, packaging and complex designs.
Circular Design—Finding optimized solutions through exploration and practice
In 2017, Tim Brown, president of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), the world's most influential circular economy organization, and the renowned design firm IDEO, shared his insights on the transformation of design within the circular economy with the theme "Ideo Says The Future of Design Is Circular." He emphasized that "design is at the core of the circular economy transition." The text stated that effective circular design doesn't simply focus on the life cycle of a single product for a single user, but rather on designing a larger system that creates more value for users by supporting multiple uses of the material.
Building a blueprint within limited resources can create more business opportunities. So how can we, as designers, work together with businesses to propose innovative and attractive opportunities?
IDEO's circular design thinking method, which consists of four processes: 1. understand, 2. define, 3. make, and 4. release, is similar to the "Double Diamond" concept proposed by the British Design Council in 2005. The Double Diamond model systematically considers the four steps of the service design process, including 1. discover, 2. define, 3. develop, and 4. deliver. Both are in the process of exploration and practice to find optimization solutions. Today's designers or companies can no longer just develop products and launch them on the market. Instead, they need to think more comprehensively, repeat, track multiple times, continuously collect or provide feedback, and continuously optimize products or services with the goal of balancing people, environment, and products. These stages can be combined into a non-linear path map. Through the process of divergence and convergence of the cyclical system, it provides designers and enterprises with a clear design framework, avoiding the aimless exploration of problems caused by excessive divergent thinking and over-design, and focusing on individual problems while ignoring the overall situation.
►Figure 2: Green Concept Circular Design Thinking Flowchart (Compiled and drawn by the author)
Following the aforementioned design thinking process as the framework for design development, designers can not only consider the four stages of the green life cycle but also incorporate IDEO's circular economy design goals (including: 1. Strengthening the product's internal circulation (power of the inner circles), 2. Strengthening the product's extended circulation (power of circling longer), 3. Strengthening the cascade use of materials (power of cascaded use), and 4. Strengthening the pure circulation of materials (power of pure circles)) as guidelines for product design and development.
Circular Design Application Examples
To assist the industry in its circular transformation, the Plastics Center's Innovation Design Group implemented the "Introduction of Circular Design into Blow Molding Process for Innovative High-Value Product Development" program in 2013, helping businesses innovate product design and break away from outdated thinking.
The following example demonstrates the development of carbon-reducing products by incorporating recycled marine waste and PCR materials into the blow molding process (see Figure 3 below). In addition to developing new products, this project also aims to expand the application scope of carbon-reducing materials such as marine waste and recycled materials.
Blow molding can be used to develop a wide range of products, with tool boxes being a major component, used for storing and organizing tools. However, in recent years, various industries have sought to break away from traditional packaging methods and develop new approaches, with blow molding becoming an option. This demonstrates the potential for innovative applications of blow molding tool boxes, making them a promising approach to reducing carbon emissions.
►Figure 3: Conceptual diagram of the Plastics Center's toolkit for companies introducing recycled material manufacturing processes (drawn by the author)
The principles of circular design prioritize dematerialization, the use of sustainable materials and recycling systems with circular economy benefits, and comprehensively consider commercial value. This project uses circular design methods to help find a green path for the development of marine waste tool kit products (see Figure 4 below).
►Figure 4: The Plastics Center provides guidance to toolbox manufacturers on developing and using a green product recycling design method (drawn by the author)
Through the design translation of the green concept circular design thinking process, an executable strategy for the circular design goal of the marine waste toolbox was established: user-centric thinking, developing appropriate solutions that meet the needs of consumers in the supply chain, proposing design concept solutions, and finally implementing this concept into the market. Referring to Figure 4, the circular design strategy for the marine waste toolbox can be developed in several directions, such as strengthening the simple recycling of materials, simplifying the surface processing process, and making an overall plan based on the product CMF, color, material, and finish. Using detailed design to reduce the grain effect caused by the raw materials themselves, in addition to creating changes in the appearance and texture to enhance the product's visual and tactile sensory qualities, it also has functional uses, making subsequent demolding smoother and more in line with demand.
In terms of overall product design, the product's volume and materials were reduced without affecting its functionality. The reduced volume reduced the product's weight, resulting in an overall reduction of 20% compared to previous toolboxes of the same specifications. This effectively implements the company's responsible production and sales of carbon reduction actions, and strengthens the significance of the development of this toolbox (Figure 5 below shows the implementation results of this project).
►Figure 5: The results of the Plastics Center's support for toolbox vendors (Image source // Plastics Center)
Circular design is a behavioral model that goes from understanding existing conditions to presenting a selection process. A successful circular economy business model not only enables companies to profit but also achieves the goals of resource utilization and sustainable business operations. The right design can be sustainable!!!
The Plastics Center is committed to helping manufacturers comply with international environmental requirements and promote green and circular product design. If companies are interested in further issues related to green sustainable design, they can contact the Sustainable Design Marketing Department's Innovation Design Group at 04-2359-5900 ext. 233, Team Leader Wu Yiling.
References：
1. Du Ruize, 2017. Green Design: Innovative Thinking and Design Practice.
2. The Circular Design Guide is a collaboration between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and IDEO.（https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/design-and-the-circular-economy-deep-dive）.
3. Developing our new Systemic Design Framework.（https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/the-double-diamond/）.
4. Apply circular design strategies and guidance tools – TDRI (https://www.tdri.org.tw/37312/）.
By Wang Jingzhu, Designer, Innovation Design Group, Sustainable Design and Marketing Department, Plastics Industry Technology Development Center
