Project Brief

Redesign a product system to be net 0 emissions - altered to sustainable

Developing a Concept

What are the downfalls of current sustainability models

Inconvenient

  • Ask too much of the user, require active participation such as finding recycling drop off locations or sending things back in the mail

Less Durable

  • Some sustainable solutions, think paper straws, create negative experiences by being less durable than their environmentally harmful counterparts.

  • Consumers may have a predisposed notion that sustainable products are less durable because of familiar experiences like soggy paper straws, meaning they might need strong convincing to trust a sustainable product

    More expensive

  • It can be difficult to match the low price points of companies with expansive manufacturing resources and high sales numbers. The unsustainable materials they are using are the cheapest possible option and that leaves any sustainable option at a default higher price point.

Choosing a Product

To discover a product to focus this project on, I thought about objects in my life that I felt weird throwing out and came upon the toothbrush. After using a toothbrush for however long, let’s say two to three months, it feels weird to just throw it away, especially when it still appears completely functional. Why is it being thrown away? Just because the idea of using a toothbrush for months on end feels gross?

The fact that a toothbrush is still functionally useful at the end of its lifecycle makes it a prime candidate for a sustainability makeover because it doesn’t appear to need much of a transformation to be put back into use.

The Concept

Needing to be: Convenient, enticing, and affordable

A reusable toothbrush that has its bristles replace by a vending machine, which attracts customers to participate in its sustainable ecosystem with an enticing customizable visual manufacturing process.

Upon inserting your toothbrush into the machine, the machine would

  • pick up your toothbrush

  • remove the bristles

  • insert the toothbrush into a body mold

  • complete a rapid injection molding process to fill in any nicks from wear

  • Allow users to select their bristle formation of preference as the body cools

  • Sanitize toothbrush with sudsy wash for visual confirmation of sanitation

  • insert selected bristle formation into the toothbrush

  • Toothbrush leaves the machine in compostable tPLA wrapper to keep it sanitized

Bristles are made of Nylon that is collected from the machine for recycling

The toothbrush itself is made from plastic, not a very sustainable material, but the body of the toothbrush is only ever slightly repaired with more plastic. In a system where someone is only ever buying one plastic toothbrush, we should end up cutting toothbrush trash by a large amount

takes inspiration from

Dr. Scholl’s machines that you want to use even if you don’t need orthotics just because its interesting to engage with

The most visually interesting vending machines that I saw as a child (claw suction machine). I wanted to get something from the machine just to see how it worked

The human interest in customizing manufactured commercial products - think custom M&Ms kiosk at the M&M store, NikeID, Engravings, Pressed Pennies

Feedback

Injection molding to fill in wear would be complicated and take too long

  • Audience seemed surprised by bite marks all over toothbrushes and said they have never seen that - possibly a non-issue

  • Process is simplified by removing this component

Some audience members said they would feel unsanitary putting their toothbrush into a publicly used machine. Even with the sanitation end step, this initial situation would dissuade them from using the machine

Audience members largely had not felt weird throwing out toothbrushes before, however that origin idea lent itself to a concept that they agreed with and found promising, so validity of the original thought was insignificant

Design Needs

This system needs to be:

Enticing to passerby - visually interesting

Cheaper than, or at least close in price, to buying a toothbrush off the shelf

- Once customers are in the ecosystem, it should be easier for them to stay in the product ecosystem than leave. Make replacement bristles cheaper than buy-in g anew toothbrush

Not too time consuming, you wouldn’t want a line building up and dissuading consumers

New Questions

The journey of the toothbrush to the machine needs to feel sanitary (and still convenient)

Making the experience visually interesting now that a main component of the experience - immediate injection molding - is gone

I made the assumption that people would want a choice in bristle formations because that is what you see on the shelves, but do these different formations actually impact dental health?

  • Does the whole project fall apart if they aren’t? (solved with charcoal bristles, custom color combos)

How can we make this process faster to make it more convenient and have less chance of line building up (App solution with preloaded preferences)

If we’re looking for bristles to be really cheap, but we need to run this whole machine and pay upfront costs for it, how are we supporting this model financially?

  • Getting stores to pay us for having in their stores, it will drive in traffic

  • Advertising on screens on the sides of the machine

  • Sponsored bristle collabs - if we become a force in the dental market, Oral B, Crest, etc. will want a share of the reusable toothbrush market and we could allow them to put their own branded bristle tech as an option in the machine. The forever toothbrush machine will become the new dental market.

Ideation Result 1

Ideation Result 2

Took into account UI accessibility for wheelchairs, height percentiles _____ given that we want everyone to begin using this model, even young children