Responsible Production & Consumption (Humanly 2019)

Humanly is the collective Capstone showcase of the Information Design program at Mount Royal University. It is an exhibition put on by a group of people that believe that good design has the power to change the world. Through the framework of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, local issues are examined - my partner and I chose to examine Canada’s recycling system and its treatment of waste and single-use plastics. We focused on the roles each stakeholder in the system were fulfilling, or not fulfilling, in the hopes of finding a way to empower consumers and producers to make more sustainable choices. We believe that understanding the systems that underpin our society empowers Canadians to make responsible, informed decisions. Our central research question became: how might we empower Canadian stakeholders to better fulfill their roles in phasing out single-use plastics? What we discovered is that plastic production and consumption has been rising at an alarming rate, resulting in exponential amounts of waste ending up in landfills and the natural environment. The current recycling system in Canada is lacking; most plastic recyclables are not being recycled and the rejection of plastic recycling exports, which were previously sent to developing countries, is exacerbating the problem. Consumers, producers, policy-makers and retailers must take responsibility and work together towards a zero-waste system in order to protect the future of our land, ecosystems, oceans and all that inhabit it.Our deliverables for this project included a system map, a timeline, a process document, and an exhibition which interactively displayed our research and encouraged people to engage with the problem and become a part of the solution. The exhibition included large scale prints of the system map and timeline, information on proper recycling, a map on how to shop zero waste in Calgary, a wire tree in which guests were asked to write something they would commit to doing to help the problem on a 'leaf' which they then attached to the tree, a magazine on zero waste, our process document, and sustainable everyday items to replace plastic items.