BOXSHELF ARRANGEMENTS

After looking at the site in Fraser Studios, Located on Kensington lane at Central.. We were able to get a clearer understanding as to how the 'boxshelf' was going to be installed within the space. When looking at the plan it is evident that 'waste in the city' has the largest space which makes it much easier to work with. Vanessa and myself took down a few measurements so that we could go back to our 'boxshelf' and start working out the arrangements.

 Here is the spatial floorplan showing how the zones are split:

When we came back to level 7 we were able to test out a few versions of the 'boxshelf' working out whether we wanted boxes on certain angles, having colours grouped together, having some boxes reversed so the colour is showing, making fixed shapes out of the polystyrene containers.

SOLUTIONS

So we came up with three solutions for our three waste problems. . .


(1) The first business solution is the 'biocup initiative'.
This is a marketing campaign targeted at local cafes in Pyrmont area to introduce a more sustainable option for disposable cups. The Campaign will also promote use and supply of 'keep cups' and offer promotional signage to benefit cafe's image in regards to stewardship in waste reduction and elimination.

BioCups are an environmentally sustainable alternative to regular take-away coffee cups.

“Unlike traditional paper cups that use a petroleum-based plastic lining, the BioCup uses a corn-based plastic lining (PLA). Therefore, it is fully renewable and leaves a smaller environmental footprint. And it does so without adding anything that will distract your clients from the rich, deep flavour they have come to know and love. One more step toward a sustainable future. Together, we can make a difference one coffee at a time.

BioCup can be composted in a commercial compost facility, however this option is not widely available in Australia. If the BioCup ends up in landfill, it still has upstream environmental benefits, such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced dependence on fossil fuels. To gain maximum advantage though, the compost bin is the recommended destination, completing a cycle by enriching the earth that helped produce it. For those concerned about the environment, its a happy ending for a cup that’s just beginning to make its mark on the world.” (www.biopak.com.au)

(2) The second business solution is the 'Com-partment'. 
COM-PARTMENT provides an apartment composting service which will allow for the recycling of food wastes using apartment suited ‘Com-bins’. A small recycled bin that will be used by all residents for their food waste. Once the Com-bin is full the residents would place the bin in a designated area such as a garbage room which would then be collected by Com-partment employees. The contracted Com-partment employees will then take these Com-bins and compost the material provided by the residents and then clean and return the Com-bins to the residents. There will be spare bins provided upon request to residents with larger food disposals. The residents which are in effect composting through Com-partment will be able to order the extremely fertile soil which will come in different sized packages so that they can be used for their own plants or other means.

(3) The third business solution is the 'BOXSHELF'
The boxshelf furniture design collects polystyrene boxes from our local Sydney fish markets and use these landfill contributors for innovative shelf design. Boxes are custom painted to specification using environmentally friendly water based paint and are multi-use items from storage to exhibition display.

PAINTING BOXES

Once we painted the boxes we realised that the colour was still fairly light and so they needed a few coats. The yellow boxes came out the best with them only needing two coats however the blue boxes needed three coats. A therapeutic session of painting commenced by the entire group and we were able to paint all the boxes fairly quickly as we were all working on them together. 

One of the groups did request that they could get plain white boxes for their display as they believed that the colours may not suit their project. We were a bit skeptical the white wouldn't fit very well at first however once we put them together the white boxes suited fine.

We used three acrylic paints and after a practice airbrush attempt it was obvious we needed to hand paint the boxes either using paintbrushes or rollers. We decided that the brushes were more precise and allowed for more control. We wanted to keep the labels on boxes so it was important to have that control so that no paint would seep through onto the labels. The water based acrylic paint was a good option for the boxes and the final result wasn't disappointing.

WEEK 10- MILKWOOD PERMACULTURE

This weeks lecture was presented by Nick Ritar from Milkwood Permaculture.
Milkwood is a small organic farm near Mudgee in central NSW. It was all about basically sustainably providing for human needs which Nick recognised there to be three important things that must be followed. These include:
1. CARE FOR EARTH
2. CARE FOR EACH OTHER
3. SET LIMITS ON CONSUMPTION
With these in mind we can create a sustainable world without causing as much waste as what the population is creating now. He spoke a lot about how human waste is flushed out to sea although it could be used as a good fertiliser, proposing the design task of creating a more circular system so that human waste can be transformed into something thats not completely wasted.
This was a interesting lecture which directly hit us with a problem that needs to be solved!

More information can be found at :
 www.milkwood.net
slowfoodaustralia.com.au

WEEK 9

Coming back after the break we were told to focus on three main problems within our suburb. The three top waste problems recognised in Pyrmont that we decided have the potential to be resolved were:


1. Polystyrene boxes used as insulation packaging for transporting fish, found at the fish markets 
2. Lack of compost bins/use in apartment blocks
3. Coffee cups- non recyclable.

After selecting these three items we were asked to develop a solution to reduce the amount of waste of this particular product. We decided, because the polystyrene boxes were only found within our area that we should use this as other groups can develop means for tackling say packaging, food waste etc. 

The solution that was developed for the polystyrene boxes was an idea for a shelving unit using the strong boxes. They come in different sizes and so we thought we could be creative in developing a useful product such as a bookshelf and make it look good so that people would want them in their households. 

After speaking with Marie it was further decided that our shelving unit will hold the other groups products for the exhibition. Vanessa spoke on behalf of the group about the shelving unit and what the possibilities could be and they seemed pretty keen to have their objects presented in our shelving unit. The unit was flexible too so they were quite happy to work with us in creating a good display at the exhibition.

We thought of other flexible means such as painting the boxes in a whole range of colours so that whoever was to purchase the boxes could change the unit in a way to suit them, picking colours they like and creating a structure that suits the goods they want to put on it. So the mission started to see whether this ‘boxshelf’ was possible for the exhibition and we can further our ideas after we know we can actually get the boxes for next week.