How do designers solve problems like waste?

Welcome to The Regenerators.

Created in partnership with The Design Museum.

Everything made by humans has been designed, from small objects like a can opener to large things like electric cars or even buildings.

Designers can help to solve problems. Their first solution is not always the best one. So they come up with lots of ideas and use the best bits.

Many designers try to solve issues like pollution and waste.

Designers are people who use a special way of thinking to solve problems. This is called design thinking.

Watch this video from the Design Museum and find out how to think like a designer.

Designers think about the person using the thing they’ve designed, and how it’s going to be used. They come up with solutions, like putting a handle on a mug to make it easier to hold a hot drink.

When designers think about a big problem like damage to the environment, they work out which smaller issues might make up the big problem.

This could be:

• The amount of plastic bottles we throw away.
• Pollution created by cars.
• The packaging that our food comes in.

Designers make a choice and pick a problem they feel strongly about. But they don’t come up with a solution straight away. They do something called iteration. This means they come up with lots of ideas and take the best bits to help them make new and better ideas.

This helps designers come up with an idea good enough to make a prototype. A prototype is a test version which may become their final product.

This is called the design process.

Now it’s your turn to use design thinking.

Waste is a big problem. The amount that we throw away is harmful to the environment and lots of our waste ends up in landfill.

In this activity you will think about possible solutions to this problem.

Before you start, make sure you have a way to sketch your ideas, either electronically or with pencils and paper.

Explore more lessons and content from around the BBC.