Plastic Pod

For this project, I was really invested in understanding how I, as a designer, can actively make a positive impact on ocean plastics, and what that even meant. Before this task, I honestly hadn’t thought much about my impact as a designer on the planet. I knew I had an impact as a person, but the project really pushed me to consider my work as being part of the problem or part of the solution. 

Obviously, ocean plastic is a huge issue and trying to solve it with one product or one solution is probably impossible. Trying to solve some of the smaller problems is easier for me as a student designer, and hopefully would lead to some greater impact later down the road. 

This task for me was a fascinating look at the behaviours of people. Examining the habits and thoughts of people surrounding ocean plastics and their waste was at the core of this task. I thought if I could get to the bottom of what was leading a group of people to not care about their waste, I could give them a real solution to the problem and hopefully reduce their contributions to ocean plastic. 

Another point I thought challenging for this task was the question, am I contributing more to ocean plastics by trying to solve it? It’s a challenging dilemma to face, because the most sustainable design is nothing, but on the other hand, doing nothing solves nothing. So really getting down into what the issue is, and the simplest way to solve it, was the core process for my design.