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Modutop
The circular economy (Macarthur, 2010) is the idea of moving away from our current linear
economy which employs a “cradle to grave” system (Braungart and McDonough, 2009,),
where most valuable resources are either wasted or discarded. This circular economy
encourages a cradle to cradle system where resources are kept at the highest possible quality
all the times. This system also separates technical and biological product cycles, where
biological materials are returned to the environment by composting them and technical
products which are designed to be disassembled and remanufactured.
Our current linear economy really started with the industrial revolution. The industrial
revolution started in the mid 18th century in Britain and spread around the world and
ending in the mid 20th century. (Encyclopædia Britannica,2015) During this time, we started
to use more and more fossil fuels such as coal and oil which in turn polluted the
surrounding environments so badly that “London air was so grimy from airborne pollutants
that people would change their cuffs and collars at the end of the day” (Braungart and
McDonough, 2009,pp. 275 – 275). An example of smog in London was the great smog of
1952 (pictured in appendix 1), which according to The Guardian, (2012) killed over 4000
people in a less than a week. This pollution disaster was caused by firstly the long history of
failed attempts to clean up London air but mainly due to that week being bitterly cold,
which in turn made more people use their coal fires (Lean, 2012).
As people started to demand more products to buy but at a cheaper price, the industrialists
of the 18th century such as Josiah Wedgewood who pioneered the mass production of
pottery to accommodate the needs of a growing population introduced the division of
labour and the use of moulds rather than hand throwing. These moulds were designed by
John Flaxman Jr. in 1775. (Museum, 2014) According to Hanks, (2011) this enabled him to
produce a much larger output whilst improving quality. In a quote from Leithart, (2012)
“His teapot lids fitted exactly; his spouts poured gentle; his handles could be held without
burning the finger”. As technology advanced and populations grew this revolution rapidly
spread around the world. In the American Industrial Revolution Henry Ford began to
produce the Ford Model T, known as the “car of the great multitude” (Braungart and
McDonough, 2009). The big innovation that came from this was the moving assembly line,
which according to Auto Editors of the Consumer Guide, (2007) enabled him to build a car
in just 93 minutes by the end of 1913. This increase in efficiency and production meant that
by 1924 it cost just $260 ($3,600 in 2014)and haddropped from $825 ($21,900 in 2014).
The main problem was that these industries relied on what people at the time believed was a
never ending supply of materials. In this quote from poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo
Emerson, nature was described as “essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the
leaf.” (Braungart and McDonough,2009, pp. 312 – 312). Even though there were a lot of
negatives with the industrial revolution there were many positives such as better health care
resulting in much higher life expectancies. in 1743 just before the industrial revolution the U.
K’s life expectancy was 34 and in 1904 it had risen to 49 (Rosser, 2015) (see appendix 3).
Now in 2015, even though we have come along way from the system of great disregard to
the environment, employed in the 19th century and the majority of the 20th century we still
mainly employ the linear economy. A good example of the current linear system is the
amount of products designed with planned obsolescence. This is a strategy where products
are designed to become obsolete after a certain amount of time, by either becoming
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unfashionable or unusable and to encourage the customers to buy the replacement of the
product sold to them (Planned obsolescence, 2009).
According to an article by Addison Del Mastro, (2015) there are two types of planned
obsolescence one being good and the other bad. These two types are “Functional
obsolescence” (Del Mastro, 2015) which is when a product innovation makes the current
model obsolete. An example of “functional obsolescence” is Laptops which according to
Lucy Siegle usually have a useful lifespan of about three to five years. This lifespan is also
usually shortened by the fact that according to Moore’s law which proclaims that the
amount of transistors in a computer chip double every two years (Siegle, 2014) This is even
further exacerbated by the fact that most computer software won’tsupport the older
systems with lower speed. The other type of planned obsolescence is what is known as
“Pseudo-functional obsolescence” and this is where a manufacturerintroduces a change to a
product that appears to improve the performance of the product but actually doesn’t. An
example of “Pseudo Functional obsolescence” is when Apple released the iPhone 5 which
had a new type of connector known as the lightning connector (see appendix 4) which
replaced the 30 pin adaptor(see appendix 5) thatall previous iPhone’s had. This in turn
made all accessories made for the previous models unusable with the iPhone 5, which meant
that consumers would need to buy replacement ones which were often expensive. This new
connector also meant that perfectly good products would end up in landfill before the end
of their useful life. This type of planned obsolescence is definitely the worst for the
environment as many of these products are made up of multiple materials which are
difficult to recycle so end up in landfill.
How then do we move away from our use of planned obsolescence? We should look at
some of the concepts designed by the Agency of Design who “wanted to demonstrate that
the agency of design was about the potential of design to create plochange in the world. It is
from this ethos that we focus on design that creates a more desirable future.” (TheStudio,
2015). The products designed by the Agency of Design are designed to last as long as
possible without becoming obsolete. One of such products is the Circular economy lightbulb
project (see appendix 6), which is a modular lightbulb designed so that the led core of the
bulb is removable so can be replaced if it breaks, or newer more efficient led technology is
developed, this system reduces waste as it means that only a small part needs to be disposed
of. To ensure that the cores are properly recycled they can be sent back to the manufacturers
in the same packaging (see appendix 7) that the new core was sent in. This in turn will have
the ability to help reclaim 100% of the materials used in the manufacturing process. This
modular bulb also promotes lighting as a service rather than a purchase which means that
you would pay monthly and receive updates as and when they are required.
Another example of a modular product which reduces the worlds reliance on planned
obsolescence is Google’s Project Ara (see appendix 8). This is a mobile phone that is entirely
modular which means that you can upgrade the features that the phone has as and when
you want. This is instead of having to buy a whole new phone which would usually only
have minimal new features such as perhaps a slightly better camera or higher resolution
screen but apart from that be more or less identical to the previous model. Some examples of
the modules for Project Ara are basics such as a bigger battery or better screen or things such
as a night vision camera, an air quality detector or even a Breathalyser module. By
employing this modular approach, it could be believed that this could also reduce the
amount of e-waste currently produced, which according to Johnathan Owen in 2012 the
world produced 49 million tons of e-waste and is expected to reach 65.4 million tons by
2017.
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An existing example of a modular laptop is the Infinity (see appendix 9) by One Education.
This is a children’s laptop designed to evolve as the child grows up, to enable this they have
made it fully modular so when something breaks it can either be easily repaired or the
module just completely replaced. The system employed by One Education enables children
in the developing world gain access to a computer, due to the fact that according to there
Indiegogo campaign every sale made will help with the purchase of this product for these
children (Srikhanta, 2015.) The system of modularity that the Infinity uses will also help to
keep the product going for the more impoverished communities in the developing world, as
it means that once someone upgrades their laptop they can donate them. Once the parts
have been donated they will then be refurbished and redistributed to the people more in
need. (Srikhanta, 2015.)It would be believed that this would help close the worlds digital
divide, as an example of this divide in 2014 only 7% of Africa were connected to the internet
(Treisman, 2014).
There are also concepts of desktop PC’s made to be entirely modular, such as the Acer Revo
Build modular PC (see appendix 10). This computer has a modular design where you would
first buy a base computer which would be a fairly basic version, you would then buy more
modules or “Blocks” as and when you need them (Ackerman, 2015).Some examples of these
modules are a HDD module that can have a capacity of up to 3TB, this drive can also be
removed and used as a portable hard drive. Other modules include audio and an external
graphics module (Painter, 2015). These modules clip together using a magnetic pin design
(see appendix 11) which means that when you add them by just placing the “Blocks” on top
or remove them by just pulling it off (Painter, 2015). This idea of a modular PC would also
help encourage the use of the “Circular economy” (Macarthur, 2010), as it would mean that
you only need to replace a module when it breaks instead of the whole computer.
One of the big aspects of this “Circular economy” (Macarthur, 2010) is the idea of leasing
possessions rather than owning them. An example of a company who use this system is the
Danish carpet company Desso. This company has manufactured the carpettiles so that once
they need to be disassembled the top layer can be separated from the base to enable the
materials to be recycled (Ellen MacArthurFoundation,2015). Desso also offer a carpet
leasing programme, during this leasing period they will provide installation, maintenance
and removal when the carpet comes to the end of its useful life (Desso, 2015). This leasing
system will also improve the quality of the recycled materials that Desso use to create their
products because they would not be mixing different materials (Ellen MacArthur
Foundation, 2015).
One of the major things that needs to happen for the “Circulareconomy” to be effectively
adopted, is people choosing to buy eco products over more traditional ones that harm the
planet. According to a survey carried out by Nielsen in 2014 with a sample of 30,000 people
in 60 countries this trend seems to be the most prevalent in regions such as South America,
where 63% of people said they would prefer to buy from a socially responsible company.
These figures are much better than in the Europe where only 40% of consumers said this
(Adams, 2014). In another survey carried out by Ipsos Public Affairs in 2012 with a sample
of 1,016 people from New York. The results of this survey showed that 68% of the 18-34
demographic would take the environmental impact of purchases into consideration for
every day purchases (Thompson, 2012).The results of this study also show that 53% of
adults aged under 35 would rather buy a product if it is an environmentally friendly one.
One would believe that these figures show that in the future as these groups age the amount
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of people who will be wanting to buy eco-friendly products is going to increase, as they will
also educate their children about thinking of the environmental impactof their products.
Another trend that is quite prevalent is the sales of laptops which are due to stay around the
same until around 2019, where as tablet PC’s surpassed the sales of laptops in 2013(statista,
2013). (see appendix 2) These figures show that there is going to continue to be a fairly good
demand for laptops for quite a long time into the future as the sales 2013 were 180.9 million
units and is expected to peak at 202 million units in 2016 and will then should drop down to
170 million units by 2018 and should then start to level out by 2019 (statista, 2013).
According to (Eadicicco, 2013) rather than destroying the market for the traditional style of
notebook PC it has actually helped improve these products. Some of these improvements
include things such as the convertible laptop style with removable screens which become
tablets. An example of one of these Laptop/tablet hybrid is Microsoft’s Surface Book (see
appendix 12 and 13), this laptop is designed to be used mainly as a laptop but when
required the screen can be detached and used as a tablet PC.
The solution that has been designed for the year 2020 will be a modular laptop made mostly
from wood. These modules will be designed to slide in and out without the customers
having to worry about having the necessary skills to disassemble a computer to remove old
parts and add new ones. These modules will also be designed to be user upgradeable so if a
user has the required skills for computer servicing they have the option of a custom module
with more specific specs. These modules will all have a structure made using FSC certified
bamboo plywood (appendix 17) grown in the UK and recycled aluminum.To enable a
secure fixing of these modules they will be secured using a magnetic fixing mechanism
similar to what is currently employed by the Acer Revo Build (see appendix 11). This design
will also mean that it would be difficult for someone to break whilst removing a module as
there will be minimal mechanical resistance from the port. To achieve proper ventilation for
all the parts the top of each module will have a slot with a small fan to help force the hot air
away from major components, such as graphics cards and processors. For the design of
these modules please see appendix 14 and 15.
The main structure of this laptop will also be made entirely from the same materials as the
modules. This structure will have six slots on the bottom of the laptop which will all have
the same dimensions, keeping these slot dimensions the same will mean that the modules
will be entirely interchangeable so you can swap and change them when you want without
having to worry about if you’ve bought the right module for a particular location of the
structure.
This structure will have some basic parts such as the motherboard built into it which will
have things such as a basic processor, a simple graphics card and a Wi-Fi card. As Wi-Fi
technology is relatively slow-moving it is unlikely to need upgrading. Due to this structure
the modules can be swapped without having to power down.This main structure will also
incorporate the speakers, touchpad and keyboard which will have keys that have been
machined using reclaimed cherry. As a result, this would reduce the products impact on the
environment as it will reduce reliance on virgin wood stocks, as well as the fact that
processing requires less energy than what it would if it were new wood (Stacey, 2015).
Another major reason for the use of wood as the main structure is that over time the product
will age and gain character which rewards the consumer.
The screen of the laptop will be a 15” 4k screen designed to be easily removed when it either
breaks or becomes outdated and needs replacing. As this screen will only need replacing
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occasionally it will be attached using a riser cable within the hinge mechanism of the lid and
small screws around the edges.
This product would first be sold to the consumers with three different specifications
including a basic model with fairly low end specs, a mid range with fairly standard specs
and a high end more powerful version. Once the consumer has purchased their laptop they
will be given the option of signing up to a subscription service. Where they would pay a
monthly subscription that would give them new modules when one either breaks or new
more superior technology comes out. These modules will be sent in re-sealable packaging
small enough to fit through the letterbox, once they have removed the old module the will
return it to the manufacturerin the packaging of the new one. The return to sender method
that this of this service will enable the module shells to be reused and to be properly
recycled when they come to the end of their useful lifecycle. With this service the consumer
will also be entitled to full technical support which will include maintenance and advice
over the lifetime of the product. To see a image of the base please see appendix 16 and 17.
The aim of this product will be to help encourage the adoption of a more circular economy
in the U.K. This would be achieved due to the fact that the modular design will increase the
useful lifespan of the product thus removing any planned obsolescence. The use of wood as
the main construction material will help to reduce the inorganic hard to recycle materials
used in most tech products.
Appendix 1
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Citations. Quotes & Annotations
Braungart, M. and McDonough, W. (2009) Cradle to cradle.London: VINTAGE.
(Braungart and McDonough, 2009, pp. 275 – 275)
(Braungart and McDonough, 2009, pp. 312 – 312)
"“essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf.”" (Braungart and
McDonough, 2009,pp. 312 – 312)
