Wow. There are so many problems here. My initial reaction was to go ask a Thai friend about the prevalence of bottled water in his country; I don’t understand where the demand comes from, other than the warm climate and the need to stay hydrated. According to the WHO the country has made good progress in the quality of the water made available to both rural and urban people, and the prevalence of water borne diseases in the country continues to fall.

 

I am sure that a lack of recycling infrastructure is part of the; but in Ireland where I’m from practically all recycling of plastics happens outside of the country - used plastic is shipped out, new plastic is shipped in - and yet pollution from plastic waste doesn’t seem to be as bad as the situation you describe in Thailand. It may be that because used plastic is bought and sold as a commodity, and because the world is experiencing a fall in demand for consumer products, there is no demand (pressure) to gather and trade plastic for recycling.

The big, big issues would need some local perspective and expertise in the types of systems and economies involved in recycling. Lots and lots to think about. Finding the right place to push at this level might yield results.

On a smaller scale, making a biodegradable bottle that is cheaper to produce than plastic might be one approach.

So many interesting things to think about. Would love to throw this around on a whiteboard for a while. Interested to hear what others have to say.

Just recently, a friend of mine was in Tokyo and told me it has been the cleanest city he has ever been to. And surprisingly he didn’t see a lot of trash bins. So keeping things clean is probably also bound to mentality.

There has been a nice video at The Fun Theory about glass recycling. To get some inspiration I think we should look at places and companies where trash is a vital problem, i.e. the airplanes, because there’s just no space for trash.

If we thing about changes in behaviour the UX community might help in ways to initiate those changes. So my follow up question would be, how do we change behaviour when the issue is less important. I do face the same problem at my employer with energy reduction.

You could have a look at germanys plastic bottle und can recycling system.

Since nearly all of are pledged items (0.25€), you don’t see any cans or plastic bottles in the streets.

And even if someone throws them into the bushes, the beggars grab them faster then the sanitation department.

This post reminded me of something I saw a while back, a 1963 idea for discarded beer bottles:

Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.

Mr. Heineken’s idea came after a visit to the Caribbean where he saw two problems: beaches littered with bottles and a lack of affordable building materials. The WOBO became his vision to solve both the recycling and housing challenges that he had witnessed on the islands.

The final WOBO design came in two sizes – 350 and 500 mm versions that were meant to lay horizontally, interlock and layout in the same manner as ‘brick and mortar’ construction. One production run in 1963 yielded 100,000 bottles some of which were used to build a small shed on Mr. Heineken’s estate in Noordwijk, Netherlands…

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/06/heineken-wobo-bottle-a-solution-to-sustainable-housing-before-its-time/

So, I asked my Thai friend to read this and give me his thoughts. He confirms that this is a problem in Thailand. Water quality has improved over time, but not to a point where people are happy to drink it out of the tap. Tap water is boiled and used for cooking. Bottled water originates in Thailand (it’s purified and bottled there) and costs about 5c per litre; so cheap that there’s no incentive to take a risk with tap water. When the bottle is empty, it’s thrown away. The plastic bottle must cost fractions of a cent, meaning it’s likely to be difficult to commoditise as a recyclable item. Even more to think about.

Unfortunately, issues like this exist largely because of the free reach of the global market (see: unchecked capitalism), and lack of better (and reasonably accessible or ‘easy’) alternatives. I personally think that it is slightly naive and self-aggrandizing to think that all types of design can help create meaningful changes in unrelated areas, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to more intelligently address the problems.

One of the more inspiring things about the UX community is the emphasis on Experience. This is truly at the heart of most issues – understanding what people fundamentally need and want, in order to help create and provide better solutions. The reason bottled water is widespread is because of, well… us. Developed nations created the product and the demand and it’s prevalence has now made it easier for low income communities to embrace it for lack of better (read: easily accessible) alternatives. The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum hosted an inspiring exhibition titled ‘Design for the Other 90%’. While I felt like the concept was stronger than the execution, it raises some great concepts about where the design community could be playing a much bigger role, just not in the ways most of us are used to.

http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/design/?c=water

Great comments, everyone. Thanks.

Paul, thanks for checking in with your Thai friend to verify the water quality issue.

Jeff, you got right to the heart of my post: where can the user experience design community play a much bigger role in this issue - beyond the ways most of us are used to? I love the WOBO design (thanks, Simon), but I’m curious about how our community can help address the deeper issue (to Michael’s point about behavior change).

Interesting one.  I can’t quite speak for Thailand but I’m from Sri Lanka and I used to travel to India quite regularly, which has similar issue. Virtually every travel article or advisory on the country recommended tourists to go with bottle water.  One thing is that the whole idea of water being unsafe is a bit exaggerated and the articles and the advisories are the ones driving it.  I don’t quite know how to solve it really, design can only be so much ahead of the economics. But how about something like certified coca-cola run pay-per-fill water dispensers at least around the shopping malls?