Challenge Summary

The goal of the Cradle to Cradle Design Challenge was to eliminate the concept of “waste” by designing products with materials that may be perpetually cycled to retain their value as nutrients to fuel growing global economies.

Design Summary & Considerations

80 billion disposable chopsticks are used worldwide each year at the expense of 20 million trees.  Restaurants rarely use reusable chopsticks for economic and perceived sanitary reasons.  The use of disposable chopsticks have played a huge role in deforestation and is a problem which needs to be solved.

Pocketsticks are compact, convenient, easy-to-use, and entirely reusable. A product like Pocketsticks provides a wonderful example for how we can help raise awareness of our effects on the environment and how easily we can take tangible steps towards a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle.

• Materials  – All materials selected for this project are environmentally friendly and safe. Pocketsticks uses 100% renewable components and are 100% compostable.  The Pocketsticks container is also made of 100% recycled aluminium.
• Product Lifecycle –  At the end of its lifecycle the chopsticks can be composted and used to fertilize the natural resources needed to create each component. The aluminum container is easily recycled and used to created new containers.

Autodesk Fusion 360

Fusion 360’s powerful capabilities make it extremely beneficial to creating Cradle to Cradle cycle designs as it incorporates many necessary design tools into one, easy to use program.

PocketSticks was modelled in Fusion 360, making it easy to create bodies and add features.  A static analysis was performed to reduce material use while still creating a structurally sound product.

The collaborative tools are useful for team members as each person can build different components and perform different functions such as analysis or rendering. Direct feedback and changes can be made to the model, speeding up the time to design and cut down on mistakes.