3.0 Initial Research

Research
In order for me to deliver a product that has value I have done some research and know that my final product will be to deliver information and data in visual form through the use of a interactive parallax website, my website will display the life cycle of a plastic bottle, from the extraction to the end, and display data in visual forms. In order to achieve this I must first research into how bottles are made and break down the life cycle so that when I am creating my final project I have a clear direction for production.

Life Cycle of a Bottle:
(Montgomeryschoolsmd.org, 2018) - Life cycle of a bottle
  1. First the oil is extracted from the earth.
  2. The oil is cleaned at the refinery.
  3. At a plastic factory the oil is transformed into plastic pellets and then bottled pre-forms.
  4. The preforms are heated and shaped into bottles.
  5. The bottles are transported to the bottling plant where they are filled with water.
  6. The bottles are then transported to the store where they are then shelved where the public buy them.
  7. They are then transported to your homes and after consumption they will either be recycled or they end up in a land fill.


End: 
Most of the plastic bottles are thrown in the trash and end up in landfills.
Some are recycled and brought to a factory that turns them into other items
like carpet, fleece and other plastic items. Eventually, those items are disposed
of in the trash and also end up in the landfill or the ocean where 8 million tonnes marine life will be poisoned for centuries to come.

Solutions:

  1. End of the parallax website I want to display locations of reverse vending machines where people can recycle their bottles and earn money off of various stores through the use of coupons, this is an incentive for the user to recycle.
  2. My second option is to allow the user to add data to an open data map visualising plastic pollution.
Video Inspiration:
YouTube. (2018)

Reverse Vending Machine
Reverse vending machines are innovative and and give value to plastic which would otherwise be recycled for free or end up in land fills, reverse vending machines increase the value of the recycling experience for the host and the user. "Reverse-vending has operated in Sweden since 1984 where more than 90% of household waste is recycled. In Scotland that figures is about 44%." (BBC News, 2018) 


(Reversevending.co.uk, 2018)

(Reversevending.co.uk, 2018)

I have contacted the company and sent them an email in regards to using their data of where these reverse vending machines are located. If I receive an response this will aid in the final project.

Plastic in the Ocean:
This relates to the project as I will be discussing the disposal of plastic water bottles, and I have found out from my research that due to the poor waste management and incorrect disposal of plastic water bottles and other types of plastic, our oceans have been flooded with this waste that will out live us, and has even become apart of us. Plastic pellets are ingested by fishes and other marine life and then we consume them, we have contaminated the food chain, a nice quote from an article I read states "Plastics also accumulate up the food chain, and studies now show that we are likely ingesting it ourselves in seafood."(Wilkins, 2018) and also from the Independent "Upon ingestion, these chemicals may be released and cause toxicity."(The Independent, 2018)

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