This graduation thesis report is about the design of a better method of waste collection for new high-rise buildings in Rotterdam. The first part covers the research into the current situation of waste collection, including the specifics of how waste is collected in the city, the
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This graduation thesis report is about the design of a better method of waste collection for new high-rise buildings in Rotterdam. The first part covers the research into the current situation of waste collection, including the specifics of how waste is collected in the city, the policy of the municipality and the factors that drive the recycling behaviour of people in general. The second part is about finding an ideal future scenario for the city, which can be compared to the current situation to find the factors that a design can improve. This part begins with a definition for the ideal scenario which is as follows: ‘In the ideal scenario, the amount of material from the waste stream that is being reused in the production of new consumer goods is as high as possible’. Next, this part shows the results from researches into the context of a new high-rise district in Rotterdam, followed by an analysis of how the waste collection is more successfully managed in other cities around the world, and on current and future technologies by which the recyclable wastes are sorted. The research part is concluded in a set of considerations for the municipality of Rotterdam to approach becoming a more circular city, and these considerations are used as design principles for the following design phase. The design part of the report shows how the design was approached, starting from a map of the different stakeholder concerns over the multiple stages of the context of waste collection. It was followed by ideation and the formation of concept directions. After some iteration, the concept directions culminated in a final concept, which is the Re-Posit system. The Re-Posit system aims to increase the convenience of separating and disposing of recyclable waste from the moment that a person starts living in one of Rotterdam’s new high-rises. It does this by offering the residents a space to collect their waste separately inside their own homes, as well as a system that takes most of their waste through one single receptacle and sorts the waste into the right containers automatically. Additionally, it includes the provision of all the information that the residents need to participate in the recycling efforts, as well as enabling the municipality to offer feedback and/or other incentives for the recycling behaviour. The design showcase starts with an overview of the Re- Posit system, and shows its daily use by the residents. The next parts goes into the different parts of the system in detail, and shows the considerations that were made during their design. The final part of the report discusses topics such as how the system relates to the current and future context, how it can be managed and paid for, and an evaluation that was done to verify the desirability of the system.