Ocean Plastic Mouse
*Before founding Materializd, Patrick Gaule led the following case study in material-led design strategies in collaboration with a wide range of companies.
DESIGN BRIEF
By 2025 there could be more plastic in the world’s ocean than fish. How might Microsoft reduce plastic waste in oceans by developing a post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin from ocean plastic waste.
01 DISCOVER
Through testing we identified degraded ocean PET plastic as our candidate material, as well as collaborating with a global resin supplier to develop the PCR resin.
02 DESIGN
We oversaw lab trials conducted by the resin supplier and aimed to achieve a 5% ocean plastic content without fire retardants as these would hinder recyclability. After three trials we achieved a successful 20% ocean plastic content. We focused our resin to be used within a mouse to pose fewer manufacturing and cost issues.
We focused the design of the Ocean Plastic Mouse to incorporate nature using unpigmented ocean plastics with a translucent appearance and added a silica-based speckle for an organic look.
03 DEFINE
Collaboratively working to bring the pieces together the global supplier provided the natural color resin, a global compounder compounded the silica, then the resin was sent to the manufacture in China. We also created a 100% recyclable packaging for the mouse to create a cohesive sustainable story throughout the entire products life cycle.
04 DELIVER
In October 2021, we launched the limited-edition Ocean Plastic Mouse, originally planned for under 100,000 units. Due to its success, the mouse remains in production today.
We also created an agreement with the global resin supplier to scale up the effort by offering the resin to other customers after the launch of the ocean plastic mouse to amplify the environmental impact.
