Summer School 2024

Single use products may feel like a thing of the past, but more and more they’re creeping back into our daily lives. From take-away coffee cups and food containers to disposable vapes and electric toothbrushes, these products are not only difficult to dispose of, but also contain valuable resources such as batteries. The current product design and waste management techniques makes material recovery or reuse of these products extremely difficult. In the UK alone we are currently throwing into landfill 5 million single use vapes every week, along with 156,000 tonnes of medical waste each year – including single use medical masks and syringes.

During our 2024 summer school, students spent three weeks working with our extensive design community to help mitigate the use of single use products, either by designing and producing new products entirely, or enabling greater material reuse.

The programme wrapped up with a showcase day, where each team pitched their solutions to their peers, industry experts and local community members. Determined by an attendee vote, the winning team received an Engineers in Business Fellowship award!

The solutions!