A.R.C. Challenge Malaysia - RIPPLE

RIPPLE – Responsible Innovation Plastics Project for Life and Environment

Masterton, Drummond ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4860-9494 and Clark, Bryan (2021) A.R.C. Challenge Malaysia - RIPPLE. [Project] (Submitted)

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Text (Design report for British Council A.R.C funded project - RIPPLE) Design report for Ripple_V2.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (17MB) | Preview

Abstract / Summary

The A.R.C. Challenge Malaysia is one of British Council’s lead up initiatives to COP26. A.R.C. stands for ‘Awareness, Resilience and Collaboration’ in response to climate change. This project aligns with one of the five priority themes of COP26 which is ‘Adaptation and resilience’ - Helping people, economies and the environment adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change by creating awareness and developing resilience among young people on climate change impacts.

The A.R.C. Challenge Malaysia aims to encourage young people from diverse backgrounds and cultures including marginalised communities engaged in debate, dialogue and mutual exchange of ideas on the impact of climate change on their future.

RIPPLE - Responsible Innovation Plastics Project for Life and Environment

Rationale
The volume of plastic waste is rising globally. The impacts of this can be seen on a daily basis and affect all areas of the globe. Climate Crisis declarations and the extinction rebellion movement have helped highlight concerns but tangible changes and solutions in all markets are required to address our dominant reliance on fossil fuels and nonrenewable virgin materials. Humanities ability to extract and use the embodied energy of these non renewable technosphere materials is being compromised and affected by volatile market values and regional differences in recycling technologies and capabilities. These barriers often lead to unfavourable end of life outcomes such as burning for energy or illegal disposal, often resulting in increased pollution, damage to ecosystems and human health..

In particular countries with large coastlines, such as those in the partner locations of the UK and Malaysia, experience further impacts from ocean carried waste. Ocean plastic waste is a real and highly visible problem for coastal regions globally. In Cornwall, beautiful beaches are polluted by plastic debris washed up on every tide. Tourism and fishing nets also have high impacts on the environment here. This has resulted in heightened awareness for our students, mobilising their creative talents to proactively solve the material and societal challenges that contribute to this climate crisis situation.

The circular economy and design thinking methodologies could offer a different approach to this critical issue by creating economic and social opportunities for innovation. Small scale and localised opportunities to utilise waste at source should be investigated to test the viability of circular products. Central to the design approach is understanding how these innovations can provide environmental, educational, economic and social uplift.

‘End of life’ product thinking needs to be challenged, and new ways to transition to what is termed ‘Next Life’ adopted. This challenge asks designers to shift their thinking about a final design solution and encourage consideration of how materials and value systems can be transferred in reusable forms rather than lost through burning for energy or worse, landfill.

Additionally both partners recognise that creating new product solutions is only half of the future transition. Indeed the recognition of the power of consumer and commercial behaviour needs equal consideration and design strategies to improve towards more responsible actions. Behaviour is often not addressed by designers or companies resulting in a vicious cycle of repeat behaviour leading to rapid consumption and disposal patterns that cannot be sustained by the world's resources.

Problem Statement
Similarly in Malaysia, plastic waste is a major concern alongside the fact that it has been a ground zero dumping site for plastic from more than 19 countries. The lack of awareness in Malaysia is driven by the habit of littering, out of sight out of mind and unsustainable consumption habits. This issue has been known to be caused by the lack of accessibility to waste management options and the mindset issue that greatly has to do with our behavioural patterns. The mindset issue comes from the idea that plastic values low compared to other materials and is complicated to recycle which should be reimagined into making use of these opportunities to innovate and create new values through waste, relating to exploring a social entrepreneurship mindset.

Among the challenges faced by growing social enterprises and NGOs in Malaysia, include the lack of resources to engage with the right talent, in this case, especially in product designing. Vast majority of resources are allocated towards the sustainability of the projects and community engagement, that product design, leading to product marketability, is often overlooked. The collaborative partnership between Falmouth University students and Biji-biji Initiative will help to tackle the skills gap faced by the Malaysian counterpart. This creates a double-edged impact where Biji-biji and the community will be able to develop skills and ride on the growing expertise of the students and professors, yet at the same time providing valuable real world problem solving experiences for the students. Such partnerships will also open up opportunities for further developments on material exploration and product development, looking into alternative, more sustainable and scalable product designs.

Research questions
The project partners in discussion have developed the following research questions in order to address the points made in the rationale and problem statement sections above.

● How can perceptions and behaviours towards plastic as a low value material be transformed through design thinking and innovation to help upcycle these waste materials as part of a circular economy model?
● How can design thinking leverage higher value economic prospects through transforming waste material?
● How can design assist in changing the perception of plastics value?
● How can design solutions trigger positive environmental behaviours?
● How can we build a legacy of design thinking in young designers that embeds the climate change agenda?

Methodology, planned activities and approach

Discover Phase

Students will meet online with partners from Biji-biji to discuss and hear from their expertise in utilising waste plastic within social innovation and enterprise contexts.

A range of inspirational speakers and project supporters will provide inspiration and knowledge stimulus by showcasing ways of innovating with waste. Partners will include expertise from Cornwall Council’s Environment, Waste and recycling department. Benthos Buttons, Root innovation.

Students will conduct secondary research by reviewing case studies from Biji-biji’s ‘Beyond Bins’ Initiative and speaking with them around the design, development and production processes.

Students from Graphics and Products will conduct a beach cleaning exercise on our local beaches. Teams will engage in identification and sorting activities and look at product narratives and histories to better understand the life story of that object and what human behaviours contributed to its disposal.

First year Sustainable Product Design and Graphic Design students will create multi-discipline teams to fabricate, build and document the creation of a precious plastic recycling and production machine that replicates the facilities used by Biji-biji to upcycle waste to new products. This activity will be supported by trained senior technical staff at Falmouth workshops.

Define Phase

Biji-biji will share a range of their existing designs and some new designs that require testing. Students will use these examples and prototypes to understand the process and machine operation in order to better understand how to design successful 3D forms that can be moulded from waste plastic. This activity is aimed at creating a better shared understanding and empathy between partners and with target users and audience. Falmouth students will conduct research and development refinement on the prototype design and moulds using 3D CAD and CNC machinery. These digital files and practical outcomes will be shared and discussed on a regular basis with Biji-biji.

Biji-biji will work with Falmouth academics and their community partners to identify and define specific design briefs that meet the challenge of increasing value perception and identifying new market opportunities for creating revenue from plastic waste.

Develop Phase

Students and academic staff at Falmouth will facilitate a design sprint to rapidly iterate a breadth of creative responses to the briefs. These multi disciplinary teams will work with the supervision of academic staff to ideate a wide range of solutions. This phase will also provide new techniques and process models allowing the mixed teams to take a holistic view of the broader project story. This will enable a core idea to translate across media and materials in one cohesive message and output.

Students will present and review the outputs of the design sprint with the project partners in order to identify areas of shared interest to detail and develop further. These will focus on both product innovations and behavioural engagement and communication strategies. It is imagined that multiple product and graphic responses will be shortlisted at this point.

Project partners and students pitch ideas to an external panel as suggested in the British Council briefing guidance in order to seek further funding or exploitation opportunities.

Teams will refocus around shortlisted ideas and assist in the further development and testing of these prototypes. In the context of hard products this will include digital design development, CNC mould manufacture and production using the precious plastic machinery.

Deliver Phase

Final project presentation of ideas will be conducted with all participants invited as a way to showcase and share knowledge, experience and learning gain.

Digital design files will be shared as open source designs with Biji-biji’s identified community partners in order to receive feedback and testing.

The project partners will collate all documented material and outputs within a designed report template provided by the Graphic Design department at Falmouth.

Item Type:	Project
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Design, Sustainability, Collaboration, Circular Economy
Subjects:	Creative Art & Design Education Creative Art & Design > Sustainable Product Design Sustainability & Environment
Department:	School of Architecture, Design & Interiors
Depositing User:	Drummond Masterton
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2025 14:28
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2025 14:28
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6076

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