Don't let the box out!

Don't let the box out!: A holistic approach to capturing material with recycling potential in the e-commerce sector

Hurtado Alvarez, Lorena (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)

Price, R.A. (mentor)
Snelders, H.M.J.J. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Strategic Product Design

2021-09-28

The explosion in e-commerce has been undeniable. Our current global situation has urged the different industries to adapt the way they provide their services & products, creating a higher demand for home delivery. With 66% of Europeans claiming to have shopped online more since the initial lockdown in March 2020 and 82% planning to shop online at the same level or more post lockdown (Samat, 2014), online shopping will remain in the consumption behaviour of potential customers. Even if consumers considered receiving their packages at their home or decided to pick them up, some other concerns may arise with this new way of purchasing, especially with the packaging system and the further waste disposal issues that the Netherlands has been facing. The high demand for packaging material and the tight supply of waste paper are pushing up cardboard prices (Velden & Stooker, 2021). Thus, there is an inconsistency in the collection of material for repurposing, leading to an increase in the price of recycled material [ + 214% in May 2021 (TMR, 2021)] and leaving the use of virgin material as a better alternative to meet the demand for cardboard. With a market estimated to be valued at ~US$ 237 billion by the end of 2019 and anticipated to reach ~US$ 333 billion by 2027 (TMR, 2021), wood pulp became a relevant subject of analysis in this project. Without a proper strategy to ensure collection and prevent the material from being contaminated, the packaging sector will be forced to bring new virgin material into the chain, which may affect our natural resources in the medium term. This thesis aimed to identify the potential points where paper-based packaging may become waste. Therefore, a systemic design approach is used to identify the different actors. Then, a strategic solution allows them to set shared needs & impacts and collaborate towards the proposed goal. As a result, a program that incorporates logistic providers, packaging producers and waste collectors was created. Moots (from the Mayan word that means “roots”) puts the waste collection system closer to the consumer and, in this way, successfully recover, measure, and repurpose waste paper and cardboard. It also evolves the role of the waste collectors where they became a facilitator to enhance collaboration, goal development, implementation, and measurement of objectives with the final aim of reducing the idea of waste.

Systems design
Reverse Logistics
Packaging
Waste disposal
Sustainabilty

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e245b0cd-0c01-4ac7-ba58-680e65b4e3a5

Student theses

master thesis

© 2021 Lorena Hurtado Alvarez