The People’s Design Lab (PDL), a new online platform aimed at harnessing the ‘collective intelligence’ of communities to design out waste, is calling for people to vote for which shortlisted products should be selected for redesign.
Launched in April of this year, the lab asked members of the public 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 nomination 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 are now being put out for vote again (until 19 June) for the public to choose category winners. Once those have been chosen, PDL will release a public design brief asking people to find ways of designing waste out of the selected products.
Speaking to Resource, PDL’s co-founder Katy Anderson said: “We’re asking people to vote for the products that most need a zero waste makeover this summer in The People’s Design Lab Awards. These are the products that drive us nuts because they end up our bins: stuff that seems designed to break, is unrecyclable or too difficult or expensive to repair. Finalists from more than 100 products nominated include black plastic food trays, over-packaged pills and inkjet printers. Please vote and have your say!
“The aim of the lab is to give people a strong voice to express their desire for better, less wasteful product design and to create new design solutions by bringing together designers, manufacturers, students, fixperts and us ordinary folk who are just frustrated by what ends up in our bins.”
Nominations
The products up for vote are:
THE WEAKEST LINK AWARD for Products You Thought Would Last a Long Time
- Kettles
- Headphones that are unfixable
- Inkjet printers
THE BIN AGAIN AWARD for Stuff You Throw Away Week After Week
- Black food packaging trays
- Pump dispenser
- Multi-layer envelopes
THE RUSSIAN DOLL AWARD for Unnecessary Packaging
- Polystyrene food packaging
- Too much hard plastic packaging
- Dead space pharmaceutical packaging
THE AWARD FOR ALL OTHER PRODUCTS Needing a Redesign
- Small electronic chargers
- Multiple train tickets for one journey
- Footwear soles
PDL is also asking for visitors to vote for the item that they feel is the Best Zero Waste Design to ‘get the debate going on what is good design and what the barriers are to it’. Nominations for this award are: open-source designs for reusing waste (such as those featured on Co-oproduct), reusable carpet tiles, and eco laundry products.
Read more about the People’s Design Lab or vote for a product to be redesigned.
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