The People’s Design Lab (PDL) is calling for people to submit redesigns aimed at designing out waste from its four award ‘winners’.

Launched in April this year by members of environmental services provide CWM Harry and partners, PDL aims to harness the ‘collective intelligence’ of communities to design out waste from poorly designed products.

The online lab invited people ‘from all walks of life’ to nominate products that they think could be improved, not just at the design stage itself, but through the whole supply chain from cradle to grave.

Categories for nominations were: the ‘Weakest Link Award’ for ‘Products You Thought Would Last a Long Time’; the ‘Bin Again Award’ for ‘Stuff You Throw Away Week After Week’; the ‘Russian Doll Award’ for ‘Unnecessary Packaging; the ‘Award for all Other Products Needing A Redesign’; and the ‘Award for Best Zero Waste Design’.

The first round of nominations and voting closed on 27 May and products that came top of the leader boards were put out for vote again for the public to choose category winners.

Award winners for redesign

From the 136 nominations, the organisers have now announced the ‘winners’ of the People's Design Lab Awards. These are:

• Weakest Link Award: inkjet printers;
• Bin Again Award: black plastic packaging;
• The Russian Doll Award: excess hard plastic packaging;and
• Award for other products needing a redesign: electronic chargers

Those wishing to submit ideas on how to ‘improve them, reduce their impact or design them out altogether’ can do so through the People’s Design Lab Redesign Forum, facebook page, or by attending one of the dedicated workshops. These are:

• 9 July: redesign workshop at Cranfield University, Milton Keynes. People can come along and find new solutions for the Award Winners
• 13 August: second workshop atLoughborough University,where people can refine their designs

The winner of the PDL award for Zero Waste design has also been announced, with website Co-oproduct – an open-source library for ideas on reusing waste to make useful products – coming up on top.

There will be an open conference on 12 September, where PDL will look more strategically at how they can create a ‘strong people’s voice’ to stop further poor design, and shape what happens next.

Currently funded by innovation charity Nesta, PDL is still in prototype form, but hopes to eventually roll out as a social enterprise and research centre with collective ownership.

Read more about the People’s Design Lab, or get involved in redesigning the nominated products.