Image: OCAD U students participate in the DESIGNwith workshop.
Designers reimagine uses for plastic waste at incubator
DESIGNwith, OCAD University’s new design incubator in partnership with Cadillac Fairview, is changing the way we think about waste.
In a multi-part workshop series, currently under way as part of the incubator’s programming, participants are embracing sustainable design and production principles by transforming plastic waste gleaned from CF Toronto Eaton Centre’s food court into bespoke lighting fixtures.
With guidance from Melissa Ciardullo, Project Leader for Circular Product Development at IKEA and a donation from the Swedish furniture retailer, workshop attendees are learning about the linear economy and the urgent need for a shift towards a circular one.
The values of a circular economy can be understood on a production and personal level and emphasize reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling. It’s an industrial system that is restorative and regenerative by design, reuses natural resources as efficiently as possible and finds value throughout a product’s lifecycle. This framework disrupts the current approach that is defined by a take-make-dispose sensibility that sees products end up in landfills.
“A recent article states that less than 9 per cent of plastic is recycled in Canada,” explains workshop instructor Ciardullo.
“Researchers have been telling us that we don’t have the resources to keep consuming the amount that we do at the rate that we do. The circular economy will enable materials and parts to be reused while contributing positively to the earth’s natural systems,” she continues.
During the series’ first half, which was held in August at the DESIGNwith studio located on Level 2 of the Eaton Centre, participants engaged in formal experimentation using plastic bottles and containers to create unique shapes that serve as the light fixtures. prototypes for
With support from OCAD U alum and TD Bank Lead Service Designer Claire Orange, and Faculty of Design professor and founder of DESIGNwith Ranee Lee, OCAD U students attending the workshop reimagined discarded materials through cutting, bending, hanging and gluing.
Fourth-year Industrial Design student Ryan Carney shares, “By participating in this workshop I took away a deeper understanding of our global economies and the ecological effects caused by the products and systems we as a human species create and consume.”
“This workshop was a proof of concept that by bringing people together to share ideas and skill sets, we can find ways to close the loop on waste, without it ever having to leave its original location,” notes Orange, who graduated from OCAD U’s Industrial Design program.
“What I enjoyed most about the process was that the waste itself was what inspired people to design imaginative new products and experiences,” she continues.
The second part of the workshop will take place in the fall and invites Cadillac Fairview employees to participate in making large lighting fixtures using the material explorations from the first workshop.
The lighting design is anchored by IKEA’s STRÅLA set, a simple cord with a light socket at the end that allows for participants’ creativity to takeover. The result of the workshop series will be a lighting display installed at the Eaton Centre.