Does This Product Smell? Designing Products from Waste
RM 27.00
ISBN:
978-629-7915-94-4
Categories:
General Academics
File Size
3.66 MB
Format
epub
Language
English
Release Year
2026
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Author
Zati Hazira IsmailSynopsis
When we buy a new thing, there’s the joy of purchasing a shiny, untouched surface, with a hint of newness smell. Then, over time, we throw away things that no longer spark joy. The discarded joy must go somewhere, and landfills are filled with countless items once desired but now unwanted.
Industrial designers, researchers, and developers have realised that this product journey is not the way to go and have rethought what waste can become. Across the world, new materials are being developed from food waste, agricultural waste, recycled plastics, and discarded textiles. Many of these waste-based materials are technically feasible to be transformed into new products. Yet one question remains: If these materials hold such potential, why are they still largely absent from the products we use every day?
This book explores waste-based materials, people’s responses and perceptions, and what users imagine about a material’s origin, especially one with an associated smell. Sometimes, smell is physically present. Sometimes it exists only in the user’s mind because the product has only been viewed on a screen.
At the heart of this book, it invites us to see waste as a material with identity and a story waiting to be told. By understanding why people accept or reject products made with waste-based materials, designers and makers can begin to circulate joy even when it’s no longer sparkling.

