Grip the Future

CURRENT SITUATION

Considering SDG Goal number 12, “Responsible Consumption and Production”, our current consumption, particularly plastic consumption, as “worldwide production of plastics reached a staggering 400.3 million metric tons in 2022,” (eco pen club, 2020) contributing as the largest factor to waste.

A bigger view of the cause is overproduction, leading to the simple fact that the stationery industry “generates a shockingly high amount of plastic waste, and to make things worse, these are frequently cheap and very poor-quality plastics.” (Etelburg Admin, 2023)

CURRENT PROBLEM

Statistics

Referring to the research (The Eco Loop, 2016) “The best option is to search for reusable good quality metal pens. The market has always had many options. These options might be a little expensive, but if taken good care of and being responsible enough to not lose them, it can be a great investment and will eventually cost the same as using many one-time-use plastic pens.“

Conducting a Questionnaire

For a closer look at the presented problem, I decided to create a questionnaire for my peers in order to gather the different reasons as to why they would feel the need to purchase new plastic pens.

Conducting an Interview

To gain an expert knowledge of the problem, I approached an expert in the market of sustainable products. 

EXPECTED OUTCOME

What

Reduce the plastic waste created by unnecessary purchasing of stationery due to factors such as drying inks, broken tips, lost caps, and other accountable factors that could be solved with an innovative design.

Goal

The product needs to be able to stop children from using unnecessary force when using a marker, as well as prevent markers from drying out due to misplaced caps. 

The product should have a high learnability and students from being able to detach any parts from the product.

The budget will be set to an appropriate amount so that the investment can be easily paid back by the low financed schools

The product needs to be withstand repeated usage as it will be used repeatedly over the years as a high investment

If the product can be used repeatedly with multiple marker ink cores by g1, it will be deemed successful

From the expert interview, “Product needs to be durable and high quality, doesn't need to be super super eco friendly if it's long term item.” 

Why

Referring back to the initial research conducted, reducing overproduction, which ultimately leads to a huge level of waste in plastic, which can be solved and lessen the environmental impact of human consumptions on a daily basis.

Technical drawing for the cap of the pencil holder.

Body of pencil holder.