Liew Li Heng, Nabilah Bte Bahrim, Tay Yu Hong, Yash Mishra, Yew Ji Hao
Academic Advisor: Prof. Adekunle Adeyeye
Packet drinks are often favored due to their long shelf life and ease of storage, but come with attached plastic straws which are separate from the carton. These straws are often accidentally discarded and form a substantial part of marine pollution. Given the environmental threat that plastic straws are known to pose, our project aims to find an engineering solution to this problem by integrating straws into the structure of packet drinks, thus eliminating the need for external straws. To achieve this, we examined current packet drink designs before forming a preliminary prototype for our solution. After finalizing the design through an engineering design approach using various materials, we formed an improved version of the prototype using materials from a deconstructed packet drink to verify that it was feasible when using the actual components of current packets. A survey was then conducted on the general public. The quantitative data we subsequently obtained indicated a few key findings; first, that 74% of respondents used packet drinks more than once a year, second, that over 70% of respondents deemed straws to be necessary when consuming packet drinks and third, that 89% of respondents preferred our design over the existing one if both were available for purchase. Qualitative data was also collected to understand what consumers deemed to be limitations and areas of improvement for our design. Having improved on our solution based on this data, we now intend to approach manufacturers for feedback regarding the feasibility of implementing our design.
Keywords: Culture and Lifestyle Trends, Responsible Consumption