1) The document discusses a group project created by architecture students on the topic of global warming. The group created a reusable handbag made from recycled plastic bottles, caps, and fabrics to raise awareness of plastic pollution's contribution to global warming. 2) The handbag is durable and functional as a reusable bag to promote the environmental message. It is made from various plastic bottle parts as well as fabrics for the handle to utilize all parts of discarded plastic materials. 3) The students' reflective essays discuss learning about plastic pollution's role in climate change and realizing how individual daily choices impact the environment. They felt the project increased their environmental awareness and commitment to sustainability.

1. Student Name / ID:
Rosabella Mobijohn 0322106
Zuha Majid 0332670
Aimi Fairuz 0328878
Ash Shefa Baharom 0333540
Sheryl Tan Jo Shing 0326466
To Yih Hang 0330384
Kheoh Ting Ying 0337025
Architecture and Environment (ARC 60504)
Task 1- Creative Approach
Topic: Global Warming
Tutor: Dr. Salvi

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
The environment plays a significant role in our lives. It provides indispensable necessity to
humans, animal as well as plants, such as water, food, shelter, and air resources. Meanwhile,
human’s everyday actions and decisions are negatively impacting the environment, causing
pollution, deforestation, and so on. As the human population increases, it is understood that the
environment will change, peaceful forests are destroyed to make room for waste. It appears
that the earth is being led to a dim future. Nonetheless, there are either non-governmental or
governmental environmentalists and movements that are fighting hard towards the injustice of
what humans has committed to the environment. Therefore, as part of that initiative, this project
intends to encourage us, architecture students to do our part by producing a creative product
using recyclable materials that reflects these concerns and take part to change for a better
world through our creative thoughts. Additionally, we are to write an essay based on an
environmental topic selected from our textbook. The topic we have chosen is Global Warming.
Global warming is the absolute most alarming environmental issue that the world faces today,
and is the cause of gradual increase of Earth’s surface, ocean, and atmosphere temperatures.
2. PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
The plastic bottle cap handbag, H 22 x L 26 x W 18 cm are made manually through the
reutilization of plastic caps. The industrial character of the plastic caps and their modularity
are explored in the way that it will have a function and aesthetic purpose, through different
combinations, type of cap (colour, dimension, texture), shape and lining (colour variation), we
can obtain unique shapes and formats.
Functionality
Using a reusable handbag as a promotional product is only wise as it can be personalized to
fit lady’s needs while it remains as an eco-friendly option.
Durability
A durable bag means consumers will be promoting the message for as long as the bag proves
to be useful. Made from recycled plastic bottles with hardboard to support and the handle
made by unwanted clothes to carry the load, the bags are built to last while also being
completely recyclable.

4. 3. MATERIALITY
In response to the pervasive nature of plastics and textiles as the majority problematic waste
demographic, plastic bottles, caps and textiles are chosen as materials for the primary components of the
eco-bag. The motive behind this decision is multi-faceted; comprehensive utilization of a plastic bottle
demonstrate its functional versatility when repurposed while drawing attention to the significance of the
creative decision thus promoting environmental awareness towards effects of utilised materials on climate
change
The primary structural components of the bag, the body and base ,is fabricated from leftover brown
boards addresses multiple concerns:
(1) brown board avoids structural flimsiness
(2) the user hazard posed by sharp bottle cap edges is negated
(3) use of brown boards promotes and expands the scope of the repurposing of paper in fabrication of
fashion products.
The bodies of transparent plastic bottles,cut into halves and conjoined at the edges, form the sides of
the body while white spray-painted bottle caps, affixed to cardboards by glue, ornates the main body. The
hips of the plastic bottles constitute the transparent middle portion of the bag; the dichotomy of between the
visual properties of the bottle caps and the hips confers aesthetical value while making full use of the
derivative product.
Steel wires were moulded into the spines of the handles, entwined by ribbons of discarded fabric. The
use of fabric offers grip comfort while its dichotomy in tone and texture to the main body adds to the visual
appeal of the bag.
Textile production is one of the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent
(CO2e) per year, which is more emissions than international flights and maritime shipping.
Emissions from manufacturing depend in part on the material produced. Synthetic fibres have seen rapid
production growth since their introduction in the second half of the twentieth century. Polyester is now the
most commonly used fabric in clothing, having overtaken cotton early in the twenty-first century. For
polyester and other synthetic materials, the emissions for production are much higher as they are produced
from fossil fuels such as crude oil. In 2015, production of polyester for textiles use results in more than 706
billion kg of CO2.
The table above only gives results for polyester; other synthetics have more of an impact: acrylic is 30%
more energy intensive in its production than polyester [8] and nylon is even higher than that.
Not only is the quantity of GHG emissions of concern regarding synthetics, so too are the kinds of gasses
produced during production of synthetic fibers. Nylon, for example, creates emissions of N2O, which is 300
times more damaging than CO2 [9] and which, because of its long life (120 years) can reach the upper
atmosphere and deplete the layer of stratospheric ozone, which is an important filter of UV radiation
With limited recycling options to recover reusable fibres, almost 60% of all clothing produced is disposed of
within a year of production (ending in landfill or incineration)5. To put that into context, that is one rubbish
truck per second to landfills. It has been estimated that less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is
recycled within the clothing industry, with around 13% recycled for use in other areas.

5. The ice caps are melting, the sea levels rising, increase in droughts, hurricanes, floods, as we
emptied our oceans with fish and replaced them with plastics.
Us humans have created an excess of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and these
greenhouse gasses are trapping our air and causing the earth’s temperature to rise. One of the
contributors to an increase in greenhouse gasses are the single use of plastics. An average amount
of 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year with around half being disposed in the oceans.
The alarming feedback loop of the relationship between the effects of plastic and climate change is
as so ; as the global climate changes, the increase in temperature levels allows plastics to release
off more methane towards the environment. This rapidly increases the rate of climate change and
the vicious circle continues with the increase usage of plastics that don’t decompose at a sufficient
rate.
Many are unaware of the direct relationship between plastic pollution and climate. The
manufacturing of 30 million plastic bags uses and estimation of 12 million barrels of oil just within the
United States of America thus causing a depletion in our oil supply. The capacity of our planet to
support over seven billion people with the lost of food sources and livelihoods is being undermined
by the direct, logical and present dangers of climate change and biodiversity loss. This impact is
more alarming in the long run as many areas would be uninhabitable due to increased temperatures
and rising sea levels.
Referring to the research conducted at the University of Hawaii led by Sarah-Jeanne Royer, she has
demonstrated the use of plastics to release powerful greenhouse gases as they breakdown, where it
contributes to climate change. The bigger the surface area a piece of plastic has, the more the
amount of methane gas is given off which accumulates the amount of greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere, eventually raising the temperature of the planet. A clear example would be plastic
bottles which would have a surface area greater than its original surface area after years of
photo-degradation. As years go by, the increase in the usage of plastic would increase the amount of
gasses given off which would be the primary catalysts for this gaseous release to the atmosphere.
Other than plastic pollution directly contributing to global warming, the build of plastic in our oceans
leads to a greater cause of ecosystem disruption with an estimated 100,000 death of marine animals
each year solely from suffocating on or ingesting bags. One of the least necessary and wasteful way
of contributing to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and methane build-up in our atmosphere are
the use of plastic bags. This lead to the idea of creating a user friendly, practical bag made out of all
parts of a plastic bottles, from it’s bottle cap to the body of the bottles in order for it to sufficiently be
disposed.
4. GLOBAL WARMING

6. 5. PRODUCT PROGRESS
1. The necessary materials, i.e. plastic bottles and recycled cardboard were cut in preparation for the
model
2. Next, the plastic bottle bottoms and the caps were pasted on the cardboard
3. After being spray painted white, holes were pierced on the front and the back of the bag to
attach the handles

7. 4. After attaching the handles, the back and the front of the bag were
connected by plastic bottles on the side. The base of the bag was also
glued after.
5. Small strands of fabric used for the handle were braided and pasted on
top of the handle attachment for security and safety
6. The product is complete

8. 6. REFLECTIVE ESSAYS
Name: Rosabella Mobijohn
Student ID: 0322106
Global warming is not a prediction. It is happening right now. It is a current increase in
temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, water, and surface. Therefore, through this project, I now
have an increased awareness of the current environmental issues globally and locally. I had the
chance to explore the local and global context of the growth and therefore realising the importance
of the relationship between the growth and its impact on the environment. In addition, in order to
utilise my time and keep motivated, I had set goals for myself each week such that my reflective
essay as well as group’s creative product would have to reach a certain stage of completion by the
end of each week. Furthermore, it was of the utmost importance to maintain communication with
my group mates so that every meeting and discussion is planned accordingly. Moreover, on
occasions when we could not meet in person we would conduct meetings through the use of our
smartphone applications such as WhatsApp. Also, through the completion of this assignment I feel
that I was able to achieve all the Taylor’s Graduate Capabilities set out in the assignment brief.
Subsequently, I have succeeded in gaining both interpersonal and interpersonal skills where I was
able to understand and utilise each of my group mates’ respective skills and talents as well as
understand the importance of the individual roles we each had to play in the successful completion
of this assignment. Last but not least, I am now able to explain the strategies that encourage
effective environmental design principles and building practices in local and global context.
Name: Sheryl Tan
Student ID: 0326466
We gathered a large number of ideas due to our chosen topic, global warming, is very
wide. Global warming affects us all at such a mass scale that we as a group started talking about
the everyday common items. Ultimately after further discussion, our decision was to focus on
fast fashion. We as individuals have a responsibility to the items of clothing buy every season and
wear every single day. Our product was slowly conceived and as a team, we met up and strung it
together. I personally went to a community recycling centre in SS17, to ask and collect the bottle
caps used in our product. It was a really humbling and awakening experience to speak to the
uncle running the centre on how much waste comes in through their centre and how much, in
reality, doesn’t. Through the completion of this assignment, I've now become more aware to the
little everyday decisions that go into keeping my lifestyle sustainable be it on the material or
brands I choose to support or just as simple as sorting through my trash before sending it to
waste disposal. I believe that communication during this assignment is vital to its completion and
as it is a synergy of all our individual parts create a product that is a synergy of all our ideas, skills
and commitment to the project.

9. Name: To Yih Hang
Student ID: 0330384
Despite the prevalence and tremendous amount of effort poured into environmental
awareness campaigns to address the gravity of global warming, the ailing environmental
predicament has been exacerbated annually ; the repercussions of the resultant climatic
imbalance caused by the phenomenon has overseen the destruction of natural habitats,
endangerment of certain animal species and will potentially render our planet in-habitable
following the annually rising temperatures of Earth’s atmosphere. Undertaking this project has
made me realize that effective combating of global warming doesn't necessitate organization
-run large financial undertakings but rather through each individuals’ daily decisions as
consumers. Hence, we as a group chose to draw attention to the adverse contributions by the
seemingly innocuous fashion industry, thus our focus on fast fashion; the revelation of the
adverse impact textile waste fabrication, disposal and decomposition convinced me to adopt
an environmental conscious to clothing consumerism as well as learning to repurpose
discarded fabrics thus reducing waste output. In regards to plastic waste, the experience of
scavenging for them has made me realise the severity of proliferation of plastic waste; its
abundance is a reminder of our overreliance of society on environmentally toxic products for
the sake of convenience is responsible for the irreversible pollution we have wrought upon our
ecosystem. This experience has taught me to adopt a more pragmatic approach to the use of
plastics by avoiding consumption of outside drinks and foods that utilises plastic compartments
while repurposing preexisting waste into everyday tools such as stationary holders and
extracurricular art projects. The expedient conclusion of this assignment is a result of
proactivtity of each member, conscientious planning, flexible task delegation and effective
intergroup communication thus achieving the objectives of Taylor's Graduate capabilities
checklist. Above all, I gain more insight into application of theoretical knowledge of
environmental conservation into real life by calibrating everyday habits as a more responsible
consumer and designer.
Name: Ash Shefa Baharom
Student ID: 0333540
Climate change is a global issue therefore it is going to require a global solution. We
are the first current generation to be aware of single handedly destroying and destructing
mother nature only makes it more fitting to address this topic within this module, increasing
the awareness of this much relevant issue. The action we take today directly determines the
severity of the crisis in the future. With that in mind, after further considerable discussions
among our group members, a direct impact we constantly subconsciously contribute to global
warming is through the fast fashion industry. In an era of consumerism, we are constantly
buying endless amount of products, with companies releasing new goods and services
following trends and styles. The excessive amount of the production of goods would
eventually lead to a huge amount of waste. So, we decided that it would be a good challenge
to tackle this problem by creating a bag that was practical out of recycle material such as
every part of a plastic bottle which is one that considered to be hard to decompose. Through
this project, I realised that all of us have unconsciously contributed to climate change and that
taking small measures of being more aware and educated about this topic gives us the ability
to tackle this global issue in the long run. Working in a group of youth that is driven and
passionate about the sustainability and the global effect climate change has lead to the
utilisation of each of our group members skills and talent, with communication being a main
source of teamwork.

10. Name: Aimi Fairuz Binti Mohd Azman
Student ID: 0328878
As the climate are constantly ever-changing, it has stimulate the awareness of people to
be more cautious of the environmental issues. For centuries, the rise of the temperature of the
earth has influence daily life forms as living things struggle to adapt to the current situation. For
example, I, for one, have find it difficult to get used to the contrast increase of heat and
uncomfortableness atmosphere. Upon finding out more regarding of global warming, I have
learned that global warming is affecting not just the surrounding air, but the water and
atmosphere as well. Through this knowledge, we have decided to make a recycled handbag
made up of plastic bottles and cardboards. Plastics could trap methane gases that has
heat-trapping potential which damages the Earth’s atmosphere. The mass production of
plastics gives out a huge negative impact to the environment during the degradation process.
Therefore, it has changed our way of thinking to make sure recyclable materials are able to be
made into something usable. We took around three hours to make sure the crafted handbag is
stable and standing up, while spray painting its body with white coloured paint. Everyone worked
together and I was able to communicate with them well and efficiency. I was pretty satisfied with
the learning outcome and the finalize result of our product. In short, this assignment is an
interesting way to raise awareness and creativity among us students. I could tell that I am more
keen on saving the environment and thinking of ways to contribute on playing my part to
overcome global warming.
Name: Zuha Majid
Student ID: 0332670
While many factors contribute to global warming, pollution caused by plastic has risen
rapidly over the decade and has now become a growing concern for the environment. The use of
non-degradable product such as plastic only add to it. One of the many solutions that could
combat this situation is to reduce the use of such products. And instead to recycle and reuse
these product that has a lasting effect on our nature. Although the benefits such as inexpensive
production of the plastics are momentary, the crux of the issue with plastics is that takes
centuries to break it down and cast of. Thus requiring us to reuse this material to reduce the raw
materials extracted to create more plastic. As minor as it may sound, the final outcome of it is
that it slows down global warming and reduces pollution. However what’s important note is that
it leaves behind a sustainable environment for the future generations. Hence, the main focus of
this assignment being reusing plastic that we use on a daily basis. As a student from the small
low-lying islands of the Maldives, I’ve grown up being aware of global warming, and a passion to
aid in combating this situation, this assignment had opened my eyes to various methods of
reusing one item, the most impactful lesson that is going to leave a lasting change in me, is
knowing how easy it is to use every part of a plastic product to build another function out of it,
therefore allowing me to be more aware of how I reuse the plastic I’m contributing to the
environmental harm. Moreover, designing this product with my follow group mates, gave me
access to creativity and generate more ideas of such. Although this assignment may have been
for the purpose of education, it made me feel like I have taken a step forward in being more
aware of the little approaches we can take in our everyday lives to leave a beneficial impact to a
cause that is a threat to us all.

11. Name: Kheoh Ting Ying
Student ID: 0337025
One of the most obvious effects of global warming is extreme weather. The weather patterns are
rapidly changing in all parts of the world, such as the increased rainfall in certain regions affects
the balance that animals and plants need to survive. Climate changes cause health problems,
animal migration, and the lack of food resources. Therefore, throughout this project, my
awareness of global warming had been increased and reflected to my life as well, likes when I
take away my food or meal, I will quickly think about how to reduce the waste materials, plastics.
Can I bring lunchbox myself when I having meals outside or I just eating at there with their plates/
bowls? Similarly, I learnt that the plastic water bottle damage the environment as well because of
the water bottle production process utilizes the petroleum product polyethylene terephthalate
(PET), this product requires an extremely large amount of fossil fuel to both make and transport.
However, the best solution is to use reusable water bottles which are eco- friendly. Moreover, the
bottled drinks also contain phthalates, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible. Phthalates
are also endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to a wide range of developmental
and reproductive effects, including reduced sperm count, testicular abnormality and tumors, and
gender development issues. Additionally, I also realized the plastic straws also the waste
materials that even can harm the animals in the sea. To avoid that happened, I can actually buy a
glass straws or stainless steel straws that can reuse many times. Because of this project, I learnt
how to make recycle product but also aesthetic to attract people nowadays. It is also a way to
encourage people is time to save our earth.