Plastic Maker Hubs: Internship
Mumbai
May 2017 - June 2017
As part of Plastic Maker Hubs' (PMH) pilot phase, founded by Xynteo, Norway, the objective was to test out whether a business proposition for the proposed plan of action would work.
What is PMH?
Plastic Maker Hubs is an initiative taken to intercept the current plastic waste disposal system, by creating business opportunities for the waste-pickers of Mumbai.
Above: The PMH approach in an infograph.
1. Understanding the Operating Context
Picture Credits: Raagul Manoharan
Infograph Credits: Being Indian
There are 2 main issues that PMH addressed:
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Ensuring waste plastic finds a home in the form of lifestyle products instead of ending up non recycled at dumping grounds.
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Improving the lives of the waste collectors who are a part of this collection and recycling process.
The 'wastepicker' women of Mumbai are the sole cause of Mumbai not choking on it's own plastic waste. These women made up the base of our operating context. We discovered many underlying factors that dictate the logistics of their work, and used this as the framework to begin our process.
Above: The plastic waste collection process.
2. Understanding the Consumer
Recycled plastic has a mixed set of impressions with different groups of people. From our talks with potential customers, we found the following statements to be true:
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People value ease of accessibility of products more than its environmental implications.
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Plastic's impression widely is that it is a cheap material, and doesn't hold as much value as clay or glassware.
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Even though it may be recycled, the product should have the look and feel of a non-recycled product.
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If a product conveys that it is recycled, is readily available, and fits the budget, people are more than willing to invest in it.
3. Process + Product Experimentation
Experiments done with different sizes and types of plastic pellets before finalising the process to go with. Click on the images to read the descriptions!
More refined explorations of plastic in context of it's product equivalent. The fusing of the multi-coloured pellets made for interesting patterns, making each piece a unique design.
More notebook cover explorations done by Deepesh Pancholi post the PMH pilot phase. These covers were made using similar coloured pellets, making for more aesthetically pleasing notebook covers. These were later also bought by interested buyers.
4. Makerspace to Market
After having our products ready, the next step was to decide the market route for these products. There were primarily two identified approaches, B2B and B2C channels. The main criteria we looked at while deciding these channels, was whether or not the people it would be reaching are environmentally conscious, and willing to act on the climate crisis.
Scope of Work
I worked on the following fields during my internship at PMH:
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Project Initialization Strategies
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Business strategy design
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Art Direction
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Product conceptualization
The Business Strategy Design team, consisting of Raagul Manoharan and I, worked on what channels of business would be best for the company. We also worked on figuring out potential partners who'd be interested in collaborating with PMH. These partners ranged from schools to cafes, entities that would stand to benefit from a collaboration with a plastic recycling company.
I also worked on two stop motion videos with my teammates Deepesh Pancholi and Viraf Patrawala:
