In the past 40 years, an incomprehensible 8,3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced and is primarily being discarded and incinerated, instead of being recycled. Only 10 per cent of this total amount has been recycled to date, therefore it was decided to focus on recycling of plastic waste to reduce plastic pollution which negatively impacts life on a global scale. Through an extensive analysis of the recycling context it was found that the biggest problem in plastic recycling is the inability to achieve a constant production of high-quality recyclate. With insufficient knowledge to address this found problem, it was decided to do an internship at Polytential BV, a start-up company located in Delft, the Netherlands. Their innovative product the Virtual Chemist, a device that analyses the composition of plastic waste up to 98,5 per cent accuracy, enables mechanical recyclers and compounders to analyse large volumes of plastic waste.
The solution will facilitate a transition towards a data-driven recycling industry, increasing profitability in processing plastic waste by providing the industry with accurate and representative composition data, as processing large volumes is currently not possible. However, The Virtual Chemist was still in an early development stage (MVP) and required further development to be presented to clients as a sellable product (MMP). This was done by addressing the user needs and facilitating the right user experience, achieved through an analysis of the context, user, current system, and workflow to define a baseline for this project. Additionally, each step was completed by focussing on the user interaction and experience. The analysis results were used to formulate a design brief, which defined the goal and direction for the ideation and conceptualisation of the product. This report presents a summary of the completed design process, research findings, and concludes with recommendations that focus on further development of the Virtual Chemist.