Aim: To design and test innovations to prevent and reduce plastic leakage into the environment and drive a sustainable plastic economy.
UK lead: Dr. Fabrizio Ceschin, Brunel University London.
Indonesia lead: Dr Emenda Sembiring Dr Gatot Yudoko, Institut Teknologi Bandung.
Partner network: Professor Gede Hendrawn, Universitas Udayana; Dr Eddy Setiadi Soedjono, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh; Dr Amaresh Chakrabarti, Indian Institute of Science; Professor Joyashree Roy, Asian Institute of Technology.
Currently, there are several potentially promising initiatives that aim to tackle the problems associated with plastics. However, they are fragmented, uncoordinated, and in most of the cases only incremental, since they address only one part of the problem and thus focus only on a portion of the complex plastic/packaging value chain, with limited impact. To tackle this challenge, the PISCES team recognises the need to adopt a systemic and cross-value chain design approach, in order to produce coordinated changes throughout the whole value chain. The development of locally-tailored solutions is required in order to address specific contextual requirements (geographical, cultural, economic, technical, regulatory, etc.) that are appropriate to specific actors in the chain. The team will develop and test a portfolio of cross-value chain solutions to ‘avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle’ plastic waste. These will include interventions at a product level (e.g. avoiding small packaging formats such as sachets, lids, tear-offs); service and business-model level (e.g. by exploring solutions to shift from single-use to reusable/refillable/returnable packaging); and waste-management level (e.g. to identify appropriate, effective, and efficient waste collection, sorting, and processing systems). This will be coupled with the development of context-specific behaviour-change strategies (informed by WP4) to be applied at different levels (product, services, communication systems) to trigger and support the required human behaviour change. The team will adopt a ‘living lab’ approach to carry out research and innovation processes in real-life environments, engaging users and all key stakeholders in co-creating, prototyping, testing, observing, and refining new solutions and organisational structures. Through hackathons, workshops, and coaching and mentoring, this WP will support and enable diverse local entrepreneurs to identify business opportunities. Through innovative design and engineering, the team will refine methods and tools that will enable local businesses, design consultancies, and other stakeholders to adapt, replicate, and build upon the solutions developed in the project.
