Sustainable Packaging

Offered By: Delft University of Technology via edX

Course Description

Overview

Large amounts of packaging materials turn into waste and escape formal collection and recycling systems. It eventually end up polluting the environment having a huge environmental impact. Moreover, their material value is forever lost to the economy. How can we improve packaging systems in order to capture this wasted potential?

This 2-course program will help industrial design engineers to rethink packaging design, recover, and reuse.

In the first course, you will explore the basic concepts of the circular economy and their implementation from various perspectives: how businesses can create value by reusing and recycling products; how designers can come up with amazingly clever solutions; and how to apply systems thinking to the transition to the circular economy.

In the second course, you will learn about the design of sustainable packaging systems. You will explore the design and business strategies of the circular economy and how this can be applied to packaging.

If you are looking for ways to upskill yourself and become a designer who not only creates great designs but contributes to the environment through rethinking the packaging of your product – this is the program for you!

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Circular Economy: An Introduction

Ready to make a difference? Learn how to contribute to a sustainable economic system by implementing novel business and design approaches!

Course 2: Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy

Learn how to apply the principles of the circular economy to sustainable packaging systems.

Courses

4 reviews
7 weeks, 3-6 hours a week, 3-6 hours a week
View details

Our global society is not sustainable. We all know about the challenges we’re facing: waste, climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity. At the same time, we want to sustain our economies and offer opportunities for a growing world population. This course is about providing solutions we really believe in: a Circular Economy.

In this course we explore the Circular Economy: how businesses can create value by reusing and recycling products, how designers can come up with amazingly clever solutions, and how you can contribute to make the Circular Economy happen.

You will learn to re-think the economic system you’re experiencing every day, and act upon it. Be a leader in this major paradigm shift! Shape a more circular future together with our global network.

The course is led by TU Delft and co-created with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability.
0 reviews
6 weeks, 3-4 hours a week, 3-4 hours a week
View details

It has become almost impossible to imagine what our lives would be like without the many benefits of packaging - just think about the different packaging and single-use items you use on a daily basis. Yet as our global population grows in size and affluence, both our collective demand for packaging materials and the waste we generate as a result will increase dramatically.

Currently, large amounts of packaging waste escape formal collection and recycling systems and eventually end up polluting the environment. Moreover, their material value is forever lost to the economy. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that uncollected plastic packaging waste alone is worth somewhere between 80 to 120 billion dollars a year.

So how can we improve packaging systems in order to capture this wasted potential? Clearly, the way we currently design, recover, and reuse packaging urgently needs a rethink!

In this course, you will learn about the design of sustainable packaging systems. To do so we will explore the design and business strategies of the circular economy.

Contrary to our current industrial model, which extracts, uses and ultimately disposes of resources, a circular economy is regenerative by design. This means that products and services are reimagined from a systems perspective in order to minimize waste, maximize positive economic, environmental and social impacts, and keep resources locked in a cycle of restoration.

This course is for you if you are interested in learning about sustainable packaging design. You'll also benefit if you are a professional in the packaging industry and want to learn how to find circular opportunities in your work. Students - particularly in design -will be able to broaden their knowledge of circular design and business strategies.

Taught by

Erwin van der Laan, Ken Webster, Conny Bakker, David Peck, Ruud Balkenende, Janne de Hoop, Jos Vlugter, Jannes Nelissen and Ester van der Voet