The Plastic Bag Problem: Taming a Pollution Beast

The Plastic Bag Problem

EPAM Continuum and Footprint Zero Partner to Tame a Pollution Beast

An estimated five trillion plastic bags are used annually worldwide, but there is no easy way to recycle them.

The damage done to the environment is multiplying as a result. Startup Footprint Zero wants to change that.

An estimated one to three percent of plastic bags are recycled, which means the vast majority end up in landfills, waterways and blowing around all corners of the Earth. Because they are made from harmful chemicals, they present a long-term threat to our environment.

Footprint Zero came to EPAM Continuum with an idea to create a device that would consume the unwieldy piles of plastic bags that households collect and compact them in a way that would be much easier to store and deliver for recycling.

Making It Real

Our engineers, designers and consultants got to work in the Made Real Lab™, where technology and human-centered design intersect to create practical prototypes that drive innovation. Made Real Lab is an inventor’s dreamscape. It’s where EPAMers from different disciplines come together to develop an abstract idea into a product ready for manufacturing. We partner with our clients every step of the way, collaborating through each challenge and iteration until the product is ready to go to market.

1000

Years it takes for a plastic bag to decompose

5 Trillion

Number of plastic bags produced annually

1-3%

Portion of plastic bags recycled

Sources: OceanWatch Australia; TheWorldCounts

Co-Creating
for a Greener Planet

The client had originally engaged EPAM for a software engineering project in 2019. As that project was wrapping up, the outlines of this new venture emerged. EPAM pivoted, calling on its experts in physical product development: innovators, user-experience and industrial designers, and mechanical and electronics engineers, who work together to bring an idea to life. Footprint Zero trusted EPAM Continuum with its vision. It was up to us to design a process to co-create a solution.

So, how do you transform that mountain of single-use shopping bags and miscellaneous packaging into something useful? We knew the bags had to be collected and condensed, but exactly what that process looked like became the subject of a few weeks of experimentation. To get to the proof of concept, engineers and designers had to find the right mechanics for collection and compression, in a way that would be easy to use, safe and affordable. All types of plastic had to be tested along the way (e.g. PET, HDPE, LDPE and PP) because they have varying physical properties, which means they react differently to the mechanics of the device.

Testing, Refining, Succeeding

Finding the right pressure, temperature and methods for deployment involved many rounds of testing. Too much pressure and the device would damage itself; too much heat and the bags could melt and stick to the machine, or they could release odors or potentially harmful chemicals. These are the type of puzzles for which Made Real Lab is built.

Because we follow strict guidelines on product development, EPAM Continuum brought in a test lab to conduct gas analysis on the air both inside and outside the device during heating to ensure it wouldn’t generate harmful gases. Of course, we researched optimal temperature ranges as part of our development process, but we also took the extra step to ensure the highest quality standards.