Science & Tech
Generative AI is seemingly more common than ever. As designers, it's often at least at the back of our minds. I had heard that generative AI is bad for the environment, so I wanted to find out how exactly it is. The UNEP (2025) and MIT News'
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After being told by our contacts at ODNR that the Alum Creek State Park Beach is constantly facing littering problems, I looked for information on how litter affects wildlife in those types of areas. Excerpts from National Geographic (2016) As the oceans fill with plastic debris, hundreds of marine species
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Trying to think of ways to get people to relate more personally to the problem of littering, I looked into the effects of plastic pollution on human health. Excerpts from Greenpeace (2025) 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels, and they are harmful at every stage of the plastics
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While discussing waste management with Tracey Coe of ODNR, she pointed our group to the following article on successful anti-littering campaigns around the world by Zero Waste Scotland (2023). Excerpts from Zero Waste Scotland (2023) A finely-tuned litter prevention campaign gets people talking. It tackles the challenge of
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People need more and more energy to power their everyday lives. Unfortunately, fossil fuels and coal are not renewable or clean energy sources. Wind, solar, and hydro are but they require specific conditions and can be difficult to scale up. Nuclear power is also an option but the byproduct is
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This article introduces the idea of a circular bioeconomy. It is driven by biodegradable materials that return to nature to be recycled into organic matter. Instead of remaining in the hands of humans to be repurposed, products in the bioeconomy are designed to integrate seamlessly into the environment the way
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I remember reading somewhere that scientists discovered some bugs that could eat plastic. Well, not bugs exactly. Worms. Although I clicked on this article with a positive outlook, the experiment ultimately falls short on solving our plastic problem. From a ScienceNews article referencing Gicole et al., (2024): "A new
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You know how in Star Trek, they have this special machine that magically creates the food from nothing? That was what I was thinking about. Besides creating food and water, the Replicator is also a recycling device. Any leftover food and cutlery could be placed back inside and turned into
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I grew up with this gourd toy and when I saw an instagram post describing this project, I immediately knew I had to learn more. Gourds are very popular in East Asia. We have instruments made of them, they show up in fantasy novels, and they are well-loved children’
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Unplastic is competitive design fair and exhibition focused on plastic alternatives. Once a year, designers, researchers, and businesses have the opportunity to submit projects in two categories: 1. Reimagining common plastic items using alternative materials Ideas such as The Gourd Project would do well here as they turned gourds into
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This post reviews an article written by CBC News that discusses the development of an automatic robot that cleans beaches. This robot, called BeBot, was developed by Searial Cleaners, an organization that focuses on creating technology that pushes the effort of collecting waste. BeBot is a remotely operated and fully
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The authors of this paper, Patil et al., are mechanical engineers from St. John College of Engineering and Management. In response to environmental degradation, Patil et al. designed an automatic lake cleaner machine to remove surface pollutants with little environmental impact. Here’s an excerpt from the report of an