Isabel Ordoñez - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Isabel Ordoñez

Research paper thumbnail of User centred design and energy efficient packaging collection infrastructure supporting circular future lifestyles

Research paper thumbnail of Centers for Urban Re-manufacture: Lessons from the CURE Pathfinder Project

Research paper thumbnail of Circularity assessment in companies: conceptual elements for developing assessment tools

Research paper thumbnail of Collaboration between design and waste management: Can it help close the material loop?

Resources Conservation and Recycling, Mar 1, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Urban commoning practices in the repair movement: Frontstaging the backstage

Environment and Planning A, Jan 5, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Support for designing waste sorting systems: A mini review

Waste Management & Research, Aug 21, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Resource recovery from post-consumer waste: important lessons for the upcoming circular economy

Journal of Cleaner Production, Oct 1, 2016

A circular economy has been proposed as a sustainable alternative to our current linear economic ... more A circular economy has been proposed as a sustainable alternative to our current linear economic system, mainly by recirculating material resources for new product development. To understand resource recirculation in practice, this paper analyses over 50 examples of products developed from discarded materials, categorising them into the recovery routes described in the circular economy literature. The examples were obtained during interviews with waste management professionals and designers who had developed products with discards. Practical challenges to implementing a circular economy were identified based on the example categorisation and comments from the interviews. The main difference observed was that the examples mostly recirculate resources to make different types of products, whereas a circular economy requires manufacturing companies to take back their own products to secure their material resources. This is partly because in practice the material collection system in place is waste management, rather than manufacturing-centred take-back systems. A revised model for recovery routes in society in which waste management is allocated an important role in facilitating material recirculation is therefore presented. The study highlights that current product design is facing a new challenge of anticipating social, economic and environmental challenges to realise the goals of a circular economy.

Research paper thumbnail of Designing with Waste: Comparison of two practice-based education cases

Research paper thumbnail of GMIT and the systematic environmental assessment of secondary materials

IOP conference series, Sep 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Swim or Drown: Tossing 1ST Year Students Into the Complexity Pool

DS 117: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2022), London South Bank University in London, UK. 8th - 9th September 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Rethinking recurring waste flows: Creating material cycles by identifying new use cases for idle materials

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science

This article presents Collaborative Material Workshops (CMW), aimed at identifying new use cases ... more This article presents Collaborative Material Workshops (CMW), aimed at identifying new use cases for commercial waste materials waste materials, which are continuously being generated and have valuable technical properties. With the assumption that such materials habe a high re-use potential, they are defined here as idle material streams. The objective of CMW is to identify scalable and feasible applications for the re-use of idle material streams and to communicate those results to commercial adopters. In cooperation with a local secondary material initiative and a project-related NGO, TU Berlin researchers have investigated the idle materials “printing blankets” and “aluminium composite panels” in two CMWs. Both materials combine valuable technical properties, a short use phase, and poor recyclability. The resulting two CMWs included 1) detailed background research, 2) physical material testing and 3) experimental CMW with material-related experts. With a special focus on the con...

Research paper thumbnail of User centred design & energy efficient packaging collection infrastructure supporting circular future lifestyles

The collection and recycling of packaging and life cycle assessments have traditionally been deve... more The collection and recycling of packaging and life cycle assessments have traditionally been developed from a technical perspective, not including the actors in the chain. How recycling should be done depends on who you ask, and whether you look at the issue from an energy, material, legal or user-based perspective. FTI, the Packaging and Newspaper Collection organization is responsible for collecting these fractions and better material recirculation in Sweden's municipalities. They ensure that containers are emptied, that the collection points remain clean, that contents go to the right treatment, and that materials are recycled as much as possible. When recyclable materials end up in the wrong place, it causes problems leading to increased energy use in the life cycle. The ongoing project Tjårven, aims to reduce energy use in connection with packaging collection, as well as potential energy gains in the second stage of the packaging life cycle, by redesigning packaging collect...

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond lampshades - Teaching upcycling in a meaningful way

Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is c... more Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is commonly described as important from a sustainability perspective and frequently appear as a theme in design education, several aspects remain unaddressed: How upcycling is done, how much waste is repurposed and the overall environmental impact of upcycling activities are often not adequately assessed. This article explores these aspects based on experiences from upcycling teaching activities recently carried out: six upcycling thesis projects in Sweden, and two upcycling workshops in China. These different experiences make it clear that involving interested manufacturers is crucial if any effect is going to be obtained from the upcycling activities. Since the task of designing with waste is so undefined, restricting manufacturing options as well as a target user group helps narrow the possible solution space. To use “virgin” industrial waste makes the process easier, since the input mate...

Research paper thumbnail of Fixotek: Implementing and Testing Urban Reuse and Repair Centers in Sweden

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Feb 24, 2019

The Fixotek project is testing if dedicated community spaces in residential areas could help enco... more The Fixotek project is testing if dedicated community spaces in residential areas could help encourage residents to fix, lend, swap and recycle consumer products, thereby preventing waste generation and recovering resources locally. Four Fixoteks have been developed, in districts with different socioeconomic conditions in Gothenburg, offering regular open hours and events. The idea has been very well received by the community, with differences in how easily it has been taken up in some of the locations. Two of the Fixoteks engage local volunteers and have developed closer to local initiatives, while in the other two more efforts are needed to engage the local community. Non the less, the locations have allowed residents to reuse and repair beyond what was possible before. The project has been implemented with a multi-stakeholder consortium, which has given it a holistic approach to the implementation, but makes decision taking slow.

Research paper thumbnail of Take Waste and Make: Guidelines for workshops to find new applications for industrial waste material

Research paper thumbnail of Waste as a Starting Point – How to Educate Design Students to Become Active Agents in Closing Material Loops

(250 WORDS MAX) The Waste to Design project gives students a framework to do their thesis on tryi... more (250 WORDS MAX) The Waste to Design project gives students a framework to do their thesis on trying to use industrial waste for new production. The first year of the project saw four theses, shedding light on the design process required for this type of work. The most common difficulties observed were uncertainties about material properties, production possibilities and regulations. This made students strive to connect and collaborate with people from other backgrounds, suggesting that improving cross-disciplinary collaboration skills in design education would facilitate this type of work.

Research paper thumbnail of How Design relates to Waste : A Categorization of Concrete Examples

Waste generation grows faster than the population due to increased consumption (Baker et al. 2004... more Waste generation grows faster than the population due to increased consumption (Baker et al. 2004). Simultaneously, the availability of resources and the ability of ecosystems to provide them are decreasing (Holmberg 1998). Keeping materials in continuous loops gains importance (McDonough & Braungart 2002; El-Haggar 2007; Foundation 2012), not only as sustainable waste management (WM), but as a way to provide the materials future generations will require. Aim and Method In order to explore the existing relation between WM and Design, an interview study was carried out in 2011, targeting designers who have worked with waste (11) and WM professionals (14). The

Research paper thumbnail of From Industrial Waste to Product Design 1 FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE TO PRODUCT DESIGN

To use waste as a starting point for new product development would be a sustainable use of materi... more To use waste as a starting point for new product development would be a sustainable use of material resources that alleviates waste handling loads. So far, products that use waste as a starting point have not been able to significantly affect waste trends. This shows a need for methods that facilitate using waste materials for product development. With this in mind, the project “From Industrial Waste to Product Design” was initiated. Industrial design engineering students are encouraged to do their master theses on exploring product development with currently unused waste. This article suggests a methodology to help designers achieve this. Two approaches were undertaken: a product study to review the state of the art in designing with waste; and an analysis of traditional design processes. In the end, an expanded design process was proposed, since a description of a systematic process for this issue was lacking among researchers or practitioners.

Research paper thumbnail of Designing from the dumpster: experiences of developing products using discards

This article presents results from the Waste to Design (W2D) project, that analysed six product d... more This article presents results from the Waste to Design (W2D) project, that analysed six product development theses projects done to make use of specific waste materials. The W2D project investigated what challenges are faced when designing with waste and how they could be addressed. It was found that there is a need for a pre-process, where: material properties are analysed, several possible application areas are suggested and later screened to determine one product type to develop. The main challenge observed was the lack of reliable material property data for the discarded materials, which hindered well informed screening. Understanding the processes needed for designing with waste is a first step in order to facilitate this work in the future.

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond Lampshades – Teaching Upcycling in a Meaningful Way

Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is c... more Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is commonly described as important from a sustainability perspective and frequently appear as a theme in design education, several aspects remain unaddressed: How upcycling is done, how much waste is repurposed and the overall environmental impact of upcycling activities are often not adequately assessed. This article explores these aspects based on experiences from upcycling teaching activities recently carried out: six upcycling thesis projects in Sweden, and two upcycling workshops in China. These different experiences make it clear that involving interested manufacturers is crucial if any effect is going to be obtained from the upcycling activities. Since the task of designing with waste is so undefined, restricting manufacturing options as well as a target user group helps narrow the possible solution space. To use " virgin " industrial waste makes the process easier, since th...

Research paper thumbnail of User centred design and energy efficient packaging collection infrastructure supporting circular future lifestyles

Research paper thumbnail of Centers for Urban Re-manufacture: Lessons from the CURE Pathfinder Project

Research paper thumbnail of Circularity assessment in companies: conceptual elements for developing assessment tools

Research paper thumbnail of Collaboration between design and waste management: Can it help close the material loop?

Resources Conservation and Recycling, Mar 1, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Urban commoning practices in the repair movement: Frontstaging the backstage

Environment and Planning A, Jan 5, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Support for designing waste sorting systems: A mini review

Waste Management & Research, Aug 21, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Resource recovery from post-consumer waste: important lessons for the upcoming circular economy

Journal of Cleaner Production, Oct 1, 2016

A circular economy has been proposed as a sustainable alternative to our current linear economic ... more A circular economy has been proposed as a sustainable alternative to our current linear economic system, mainly by recirculating material resources for new product development. To understand resource recirculation in practice, this paper analyses over 50 examples of products developed from discarded materials, categorising them into the recovery routes described in the circular economy literature. The examples were obtained during interviews with waste management professionals and designers who had developed products with discards. Practical challenges to implementing a circular economy were identified based on the example categorisation and comments from the interviews. The main difference observed was that the examples mostly recirculate resources to make different types of products, whereas a circular economy requires manufacturing companies to take back their own products to secure their material resources. This is partly because in practice the material collection system in place is waste management, rather than manufacturing-centred take-back systems. A revised model for recovery routes in society in which waste management is allocated an important role in facilitating material recirculation is therefore presented. The study highlights that current product design is facing a new challenge of anticipating social, economic and environmental challenges to realise the goals of a circular economy.

Research paper thumbnail of Designing with Waste: Comparison of two practice-based education cases

Research paper thumbnail of GMIT and the systematic environmental assessment of secondary materials

IOP conference series, Sep 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Swim or Drown: Tossing 1ST Year Students Into the Complexity Pool

DS 117: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2022), London South Bank University in London, UK. 8th - 9th September 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Rethinking recurring waste flows: Creating material cycles by identifying new use cases for idle materials

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science

This article presents Collaborative Material Workshops (CMW), aimed at identifying new use cases ... more This article presents Collaborative Material Workshops (CMW), aimed at identifying new use cases for commercial waste materials waste materials, which are continuously being generated and have valuable technical properties. With the assumption that such materials habe a high re-use potential, they are defined here as idle material streams. The objective of CMW is to identify scalable and feasible applications for the re-use of idle material streams and to communicate those results to commercial adopters. In cooperation with a local secondary material initiative and a project-related NGO, TU Berlin researchers have investigated the idle materials “printing blankets” and “aluminium composite panels” in two CMWs. Both materials combine valuable technical properties, a short use phase, and poor recyclability. The resulting two CMWs included 1) detailed background research, 2) physical material testing and 3) experimental CMW with material-related experts. With a special focus on the con...

Research paper thumbnail of User centred design & energy efficient packaging collection infrastructure supporting circular future lifestyles

The collection and recycling of packaging and life cycle assessments have traditionally been deve... more The collection and recycling of packaging and life cycle assessments have traditionally been developed from a technical perspective, not including the actors in the chain. How recycling should be done depends on who you ask, and whether you look at the issue from an energy, material, legal or user-based perspective. FTI, the Packaging and Newspaper Collection organization is responsible for collecting these fractions and better material recirculation in Sweden's municipalities. They ensure that containers are emptied, that the collection points remain clean, that contents go to the right treatment, and that materials are recycled as much as possible. When recyclable materials end up in the wrong place, it causes problems leading to increased energy use in the life cycle. The ongoing project Tjårven, aims to reduce energy use in connection with packaging collection, as well as potential energy gains in the second stage of the packaging life cycle, by redesigning packaging collect...

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond lampshades - Teaching upcycling in a meaningful way

Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is c... more Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is commonly described as important from a sustainability perspective and frequently appear as a theme in design education, several aspects remain unaddressed: How upcycling is done, how much waste is repurposed and the overall environmental impact of upcycling activities are often not adequately assessed. This article explores these aspects based on experiences from upcycling teaching activities recently carried out: six upcycling thesis projects in Sweden, and two upcycling workshops in China. These different experiences make it clear that involving interested manufacturers is crucial if any effect is going to be obtained from the upcycling activities. Since the task of designing with waste is so undefined, restricting manufacturing options as well as a target user group helps narrow the possible solution space. To use “virgin” industrial waste makes the process easier, since the input mate...

Research paper thumbnail of Fixotek: Implementing and Testing Urban Reuse and Repair Centers in Sweden

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Feb 24, 2019

The Fixotek project is testing if dedicated community spaces in residential areas could help enco... more The Fixotek project is testing if dedicated community spaces in residential areas could help encourage residents to fix, lend, swap and recycle consumer products, thereby preventing waste generation and recovering resources locally. Four Fixoteks have been developed, in districts with different socioeconomic conditions in Gothenburg, offering regular open hours and events. The idea has been very well received by the community, with differences in how easily it has been taken up in some of the locations. Two of the Fixoteks engage local volunteers and have developed closer to local initiatives, while in the other two more efforts are needed to engage the local community. Non the less, the locations have allowed residents to reuse and repair beyond what was possible before. The project has been implemented with a multi-stakeholder consortium, which has given it a holistic approach to the implementation, but makes decision taking slow.

Research paper thumbnail of Take Waste and Make: Guidelines for workshops to find new applications for industrial waste material

Research paper thumbnail of Waste as a Starting Point – How to Educate Design Students to Become Active Agents in Closing Material Loops

(250 WORDS MAX) The Waste to Design project gives students a framework to do their thesis on tryi... more (250 WORDS MAX) The Waste to Design project gives students a framework to do their thesis on trying to use industrial waste for new production. The first year of the project saw four theses, shedding light on the design process required for this type of work. The most common difficulties observed were uncertainties about material properties, production possibilities and regulations. This made students strive to connect and collaborate with people from other backgrounds, suggesting that improving cross-disciplinary collaboration skills in design education would facilitate this type of work.

Research paper thumbnail of How Design relates to Waste : A Categorization of Concrete Examples

Waste generation grows faster than the population due to increased consumption (Baker et al. 2004... more Waste generation grows faster than the population due to increased consumption (Baker et al. 2004). Simultaneously, the availability of resources and the ability of ecosystems to provide them are decreasing (Holmberg 1998). Keeping materials in continuous loops gains importance (McDonough & Braungart 2002; El-Haggar 2007; Foundation 2012), not only as sustainable waste management (WM), but as a way to provide the materials future generations will require. Aim and Method In order to explore the existing relation between WM and Design, an interview study was carried out in 2011, targeting designers who have worked with waste (11) and WM professionals (14). The

Research paper thumbnail of From Industrial Waste to Product Design 1 FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE TO PRODUCT DESIGN

To use waste as a starting point for new product development would be a sustainable use of materi... more To use waste as a starting point for new product development would be a sustainable use of material resources that alleviates waste handling loads. So far, products that use waste as a starting point have not been able to significantly affect waste trends. This shows a need for methods that facilitate using waste materials for product development. With this in mind, the project “From Industrial Waste to Product Design” was initiated. Industrial design engineering students are encouraged to do their master theses on exploring product development with currently unused waste. This article suggests a methodology to help designers achieve this. Two approaches were undertaken: a product study to review the state of the art in designing with waste; and an analysis of traditional design processes. In the end, an expanded design process was proposed, since a description of a systematic process for this issue was lacking among researchers or practitioners.

Research paper thumbnail of Designing from the dumpster: experiences of developing products using discards

This article presents results from the Waste to Design (W2D) project, that analysed six product d... more This article presents results from the Waste to Design (W2D) project, that analysed six product development theses projects done to make use of specific waste materials. The W2D project investigated what challenges are faced when designing with waste and how they could be addressed. It was found that there is a need for a pre-process, where: material properties are analysed, several possible application areas are suggested and later screened to determine one product type to develop. The main challenge observed was the lack of reliable material property data for the discarded materials, which hindered well informed screening. Understanding the processes needed for designing with waste is a first step in order to facilitate this work in the future.

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond Lampshades – Teaching Upcycling in a Meaningful Way

Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is c... more Upcycling reuses waste materials to create products of higher quality/value. While upcycling is commonly described as important from a sustainability perspective and frequently appear as a theme in design education, several aspects remain unaddressed: How upcycling is done, how much waste is repurposed and the overall environmental impact of upcycling activities are often not adequately assessed. This article explores these aspects based on experiences from upcycling teaching activities recently carried out: six upcycling thesis projects in Sweden, and two upcycling workshops in China. These different experiences make it clear that involving interested manufacturers is crucial if any effect is going to be obtained from the upcycling activities. Since the task of designing with waste is so undefined, restricting manufacturing options as well as a target user group helps narrow the possible solution space. To use " virgin " industrial waste makes the process easier, since th...