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Description
Increase the use of secondary raw materials instead of plastics and to raise awareness of the consequences of our decisions on the state of the ocean. The Project carried out a survey to identify consumption habits of plastic bottles and requirements for an "environmentally friendly" water bottle. A water refill station was developed and installed in IPVC facilities, and a bottle was created which allows for large-scale reuse. The project plans to install 9 refill stations distributed by IPVC, produce 6000 bottles, reduce 8 kg of recycled plastic and support 25 awareness campaigns.
Summary of project results
The Project intends to increase the use of secondary raw materials to replace the use of plastics by promoting the development of a refill station for plastic-free reusable water bottles, a process that will begin with the implementation of a survey of a wide group of users to define the functional requirements of these refilling stations and a bottle.
The project had four activities:
A1 – It consisted in the elaboration of the requirements of the two prototypes to be developed (water refill station and new bottle), through the implementation of a survey to the potential users of the solutions to be developed (students and staff), thus developing a product that complies with the needs and expectations of the target audience. In fact, it is only possible to create something concrete if we have very specific knowledge of the objectives. The survey aimed to ascertain the expectations that the target audience has regarding the prototypes to be implemented, thus seeking to specify the functional and aesthetic characteristics that allow the function to be fulfilled. At the end of A1, two fact sheets were prepared with the specifications of the water refilling station and the new bottle to be developed.
A2 – The Project team designed, developed and tested prototypes in accordance with the specification sheets prepared in A1. The prototypes designed by the Project team were later developed and tested by companies hired for this purpose, based on the projects and respective specifications duly prepared by the team. The project and specifications for the water refill station were implemented by members of the Design team specializing in electronics and chemistry, and the project and specifications for the new bottle developed by elements of the Project team specializing in design and materials. Coordination was ensured by a sustainability expert. At the end of A2, two projects and respective specifications were prepared - water and bottle refilling station - and the two prototypes created were developed and tested.
A3 – 10 water filling facilities were installed in the 6 IPVC schools, their bars, canteens and academic residences, the water filling stations developed at A2, as well as to distribute 500 reusable bottles created in the referred Activity. After its installation in situ, an experimental study was developed to analyze the change in the behavioral patterns of the target audience (students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff), and the reduction in consumption triggered by the implementation of the project solution. It was possible to account for the reduction in plastic consumption, as well as to characterize the initial and final environmental footprint after implementation of the solution, the respective reduction in energy consumption and GHG emissions. With the extrapolation of results it was possible to estimate the savings achieved by the Project, if implemented by most of the national Higher Education Institutions. At the end of A3, an exhaustive Technical Report was prepared, including the statistical treatment of the environmental characterization results of the initial and final scenarios with proposed measures to improve the implemented solution.
A4 – given the results generated by activity 3, the solutions developed were disseminate through sensitization to 10 elementary schools and 10 secondary schools of Alto Minho, as well as digital sensitization to all school clusters and administrative bodies. place. A dissemination action was planned during the bathing season on the beaches of Alto Minho, with an eminently young public, where in addition to presenting the results of the Project, the products developed were installed and distributed (water and bottle treatment plant, respectively). In addition to the actions presented above, the Project was publicized through a set of scientific publications, and by participating in conferences and in environmental and sustainability fairs.
This project placed 8 refilling stations on the IPVC University Campus and 1 mobile station in schools and on beaches in the region, and promoted their use as well as the Refill H2O reusable bottle. The requirements to be met by the filling station and the reusable bottle were based on analysis by a survey disseminated among the IPVC community.
As part of this project, several scientific works were carried out and published, and a Smartbottle Refill_H2O bottle was created and won an international award.
3355 water fillings were recorded at the installed stations, which represents a saving of 50.33 KG of single-use plastic (average of 15g per 50cl bottle). This value would surely increase to the hundreds of kg of single-use plastic saved when considering the use of single-use bottles from IPVC bars, and the refilling of bottles with tap water.
It was possible to observe a change in behavior among students at IPVC schools and at the “Centro Académico” residence. However, there was a difficulty in changing students'' behavior when using the Refill H2O station, often opting to refill their bottles at water points on the school grounds. It is known that changing behaviors can take years, which is why it is the role of IPVC, as a higher education institution, to continue to encourage the use of the station and the bottle, thus avoiding the consumption of more than 15,000 bottles per year.
It is worth mentioning the possibility of replicating this type of solution in donor countries, where it is expected that it would be very well received given the economic and cultural characteristics of these countries, factors that have a strong influence on consumer choice.