During my Senior year at Tufts University, I worked on a team with 5 others on a contracted project for a consulting solutions firm. Our objective was to design a system that would enable consumers to bypass the traditional municipal recycling process and instead profit from their recycled cardboard waste.

With the rise of e-commerce, manufacturing, and globalization, cardboard waste has increased significantly, yet existing recycling systems struggle to keep up. Millions of tons of cardboard end up in landfills each year, and improper recycling practices contribute to methane emissions and climate change. Our goal was to develop a system that not only diverted cardboard from landfills but also incentivized proper recycling habits.

Our client tasked us with designing a device that would help consumers manage and condense their cardboard waste at home. This compressed waste could then be sold directly to collection facilities, offering users a financial incentive while improving recycling efficiency.

We began our process with user research, starting with an informal survey to gather preliminary insights. The findings from this initial survey helped us design more structured questionnaires through Qualtrics.

Our first questionnaire focused on consumer recycling habits, how they disposed of cardboard waste, and the physical space they could allocate for a cardboard compactor.

The second questionnaire explore the costs consumers were willing to incur—whether in terms of money, time, or effort—as well as the financial incentive required to motivate participation in the system.

Using the findings from our surveys, we developed a set of user personas to represent our target consumers and compiled a list of user needs and requirements to ensure the cardboard condenser was both effective and safe.

With a clear understanding of our users and their needs, we began ideating and prototyping our initial designs.

We selected mechanical force as the primary compression method, as alternatives like hydraulics or shredding mechanisms would add excessive weight and cost to the device.

Our form factor was informed by both questionnaire results and biomechanical and ergonomic analyses. We prioritized minimizing strain on the user’s lower back and extremities while operating the device. Additionally, we designed the activation mechanism (a wheel) based on anthropometric data, ensuring it met the usability needs of 95% of the population.

The final design was modeled in SolidWorks, and we compiled our deliverables into a 20-page report and a 30-minute client presentation.

Ultimately, due to client-imposed constraints—such as flat-pack shipping and at-home assembly—as well as the necessary size and weight required for effective compression, the product was unlikely to be commercially viable. However, this project provided invaluable real-world experience in team collaboration, client-driven design, and iterative problem-solving to address consumer and societal challenges.