Colloquia

Summary

Packaging waste is a major contributor to the pollution of ecosystems and the harm to wildlife when its recycling and disposal of packaging is not properly considered. Upcoming regulations from the European Union are meant to prevent and reduce packaging waste: the PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) will harmonise regulations all over the European Union, where packaging has to become recyclable and contain more recycled content.

Within this project, the shower foam packaging for the brand Rituals is redesigned, to both comply with the PPWR as well as reduce its environmental impact. The PPWR focuses on packaging waste, and not the environmental impact of packaging: CO2 emissions, water usage, and fossil fuel use are not considered in the regulations. As a result, recyclable materials are not always the most sustainable option for every product-packaging combination.

The current packaging for the shower foam is an aerosol with a bag-on-valve system. Propellants push the gel out of the packaging, and the difference in pressure expands the gel to a foam. Due to the components being permanently attached to one another, many materials are lost in the recycling process.

Rituals is known for its affordable luxury. The brand is focused on becoming more sustainable, even though sustainability and luxury can be seen as opposing concepts in the eyes of the consumer. Reusable and refillable packaging systems have gained more consumer interest, however switching to such systems still poses several barriers, causing complicated, messy, and unhygienic designs to fail in their task of replacing their single-use counterparts. Refillable products that are popular prioritize ease of use, convenience, are valuable packaging, or have monetary benefits for the customer. Besides these incentives, luxurious packaging that transforms extra effort into a ritual can be a successful stimulus to reuse.

The literature study aids in the creation of three design directions: (1) ease of disposal, (2) ease of refilling, and (3) ritual of refill. For these directions, a single-use tube and two refillable dispensers are designed. A focus group study among students and middle-aged women was conducted to gather user insights, which aided in the selection and refinement of the final shower foam packaging. This was followed by a usability test to evaluate the functionality of the redesign. The final redesign of the Rituals shower foam is a refillable packaging design that is easy to assemble, reduces the environmental impact, and has a 100% recyclable refill.