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Improving the composting experience through increasing ease of use and improving delivery mechanisms of compost.
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Bigger blossoms, better leaves.
Through this project we aimed to learn about the composting process and the ways in which we can make using compost better. More specifically, by exploring different materials and forms that compost can come in, we came up with a low cost, easy to use compost that improves the user's experience. This includes distributing, moving, using, and storing. We explored the characteristics of different degradable and dissolving packaging ideas in an effort to provide the ideal form of compost for farmers and gardeners.
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On a large scale, we aimed to decrease supermarket waste, soil degradation, and global warming. Compost is a great thing for the soil and earth but it is difficult to maneuver and distribute for a majority of the population. By creating a compost product that is low cost and easily distributed over land we better meet the needs of small scale farmers.
Meet our clients
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Our users span a wide range. On a larger scale, they would include both small and large scale farmers and farming companies. However, for the purposes of this project, we will be focusing on small-scale farmers, gardeners, hobbyists, and professionals.
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Client Needs
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Increased availability of suitable compost
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Efficient ways of application
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Cost effective
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Through discussing an initial idea, we decided to created a survey to get a better understanding of our clients needs, current methods, and understanding of compost as a whole. By posting on multiple gardening and farming Facebook group pages and contacting local Boston garden centers we collected a lot of feedback. Information came from people located in Vermont, Florida, California, Tennessee, England, Ireland, Canada, Portugal, and many other places across the world.
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We found that users either make their own compost (out of leftover foods), buy their compost, or use animal manure. Store-bought compost comes in big bags that are heavy and difficult to maneuver.
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Nutrients that users are aware of include: Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potassium, imported for us to better understand composting.
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Found pain points of dry compost:
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Time consuming
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Moving it (manual labor)
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Not enough compost
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Worms
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Unused bags dry out
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Changes / Improvements:
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Want to make more
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Want a bigger community impact
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Less expensive
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Initial Concept ideas​
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Paper pulp
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Bioplastic (biobased polymer)
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Cardboard
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Compressed peat moss
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Powder
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Entirely compost pods
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Liquid form
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Material Needs
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Disintegrate in soil
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Low cost
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Easy to manipulate / mold
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Refined Concept
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Our original concept was a solid compost pod. However, this did not seem to solve the pain points that our users were having. As we did more research, we found that compost tea is also highly beneficial for soil and could provide an easier application method. While traditional spray bottle methods are widely accepted, we decided to go with something a little more unique. We combined our initial pod concept with this new idea of using compost tea. There are some benefits to using compost tea such as helping suppress plant disease, encourage growth of root systems, and easy of use In addition, we thought that compost tea is versatile, and could be used in a variety of different ways. Again, for our purposes, we decided to go with a pod. In order to come up with a prototype, we needed to find the best material for the encasement.
Materials
Learn more about the process we went through to decide what the best material is for the casing of our pod.
Next Steps​
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In order to further our branding vision, we created what we thought the back of the packaging might look like. We used the green inspired by pea pods to promote health, sustainability, and renewability. It’s a very green product in itself. The back of our packaging would read something like this...
Product Packaging ​
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Inspired by a pea pod, we created a 3D printed a mold (made of white polylactic acid) of six pods and vacuum formed a piece of plastic over that. While we only had the ability to use plastic in our prototype due to the availability in our university design lab, our final product will be a biodegradable material that is good for the environment and degrades, paper pulp as a possibility.
Expert Review and Project Deliverables
Check out our talk with a local gardener and our final product poster.
Meet The Team
Brianna Mignano
Olivia Wentzell
Winston Tan
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