Jasmine
After the day I have honestly felt so much more motivated and driven to do more for the environment and to commit to creating a sustainable future
Miss Jasmine Ventham, 17
When Dhruv invited me to be a ‘Young Mind’ at the Plastic Hackathon and represent my generation I was thrilled. I knew that it would be an important day of inspiration, innovation and, most importantly, solutions. At the start of the day people milled into the Dyson Building at Imperial College and the rows of chairs started to fill in preparation for Dhruv to make the opening speech.
Myself and the other ‘Young Minds’ were also lucky enough to get the chance to express our environmental concerns and inspirations, as well as our hopes for the day. Other speakers at the start of the day included leaders from… who spread their knowledge on current plastic solutions and encouraged us to make the most of the day by pushing ourselves to generate new ideas.
The day consisted of working in small groups of about 10 on different specific topics. We were lead with creative exercises to get us thinking about our topic problem in depth so that we really understood the issue. My group was tasked with the issue of ‘Takeaways’, which has been a growing issue within the UK in the last decade due to the rise of takeaway delivery services.
It was incredible to meet and work with like-minded students and professionals in varying business disciplines, and it helped to expand my knowledge of working in sustainable businesses. Throughout the event we were supplied with delicious food that helped to fuel our brains and keep the creativity flowing. We even got to try some water and ketchup droplets with edible packaging; it was incredible to see sustainable innovation in action.
After idea generation we further split the topic teams between our two favourite ideas and began fleshing out our concepts into a business model which we would pitch at the end of the day. We had to work quickly to finish everything by the deadlines, especially since everyone was so absorbed in their ideas that the time flew by so quickly. The evening consisted of presentations and questioning by the judges which was an incredible opportunity to see everyone else’s ideas that they had been working on throughout the day. I felt invigorated by the progress that a group of people had been able to make in just a few hours and it certainly made my hopes seem a bit more realistic. I am really hopeful that this vibrant spirit can continue in the future to create a more sustainable world for our generation and the many to come.
Jasmine
Ellie
Being the youngest in a mixed aged team was actually not at all as intimidating as I had perhaps expected. This was due to the willingness of everyone to participate, listening carefully to all ideas and actually having that want to find the best solution possible!
Miss Ellie, 17
I just wanted to say that you and your team did a fabulous job of organising the plastic hackathon on Saturday. It flowed very nicely between the opening talks, initial ideas, networking and presenting!
I mostly enjoyed having a feel for what it was like to work alongside equally passionate business professionals and students, all of whom were extremely interesting and resourceful when I approached them with questions about their own experiences and knowledge.
Being the youngest in a mixed aged team was actually not at all as intimidating as I had perhaps expected. This was due to the willingness of everyone to participate, listening carefully to all ideas and actually having that want to find the best solution possible!
I especially liked the structure of the morning where we were given a few existing ideas as food for thought. Also the chance to brainstorm ideas on one topic area as it meant we could really focus our attention to one sector of the plastic problem ensuring the most positive outputs could be received. It also made us consider the bigger picture involving everything from media coverage, to packaging, to the uses and re-uses. All of these business concepts were very new to me and working with people who deal with this in their everyday lives was hugely valuable!
Also, the idea to work in silence for 2 minutes to write down all of your personal ideas seemed to be a huge success of nailing down where everyone’s individual thoughts lay. It meant everyone’s ideas would be considered individually and made voting for the most favourable solution easier within our groups!
One thing that I had noticed in my group was that when we were discussing our chosen solution, we had figured out even the smallest details however, these seemed to be forgotten or not able to be put across in our powerpoint. Even though the strict time limits did work well, we could have benefitted hugely from some extra time in the presentation side to ensure all of our key points could be pitched to the judges! This would have definitely increased the quality of the presentations even more so.
This was my first hackathon but I could tell that the clear structure throughout the day was greatly appreciated as it enabled really focussed thoughts and ideas in a very constructive way. The clear layout of the printouts was also an excellent additions!
Thank you so much for enabling me to be part of this opportunity, I look forward to seeing where all of these knew ideas and questions can take me in the future!
Ellie
Phoebe
My focused topic was Grab and Go food and I urged in my speech how as consumers we had become so mindless to single-use plastics because we based our consumption on convenience. This made me ambitious to try to seamlessly alter this attitude, without taking away from the customers need for a quick and easy bite to eat.
Phoebe, 17
Ellie, Jasmine and I embarked our day on the tube heading to Imperial College. The week’s preparation for the event gave us an even bigger scope of knowledge and awareness of the issue, so our minds were filled with ideas to tackle common consumer habits of single-use plastics. By researching and reading around different websites, it inspired us to drive with ambition for a long-lasting solution.
We arrived and were swiftly taken to the pitch room to practice our keynote speeches. After running through them with Dhruv, we headed upstairs to take our seats. It was a great opportunity to use our written speeches as guidance but truly speak from our point of view on our focused topic. My focused topic was Grab and Go food and I urged in my speech how as consumers we had become so mindless to single-use plastics because we based our consumption on convenience.
This made me ambitious to try to seamlessly alter this attitude, without taking away from the customers need for a quick and easy bite to eat.
The keynotes drew to a close and we were given insightful speeches from Chris Herwin from reboot innovation and Selly Beken, head UK Circular Plastics Network Manager, helping us think about how we can get products and solutions onto the market
We then separated off into our focus groups, my focus was Grab and Go food, a difficult problem since again we had to think about not affecting the convenience of Grab and Go food. Throughout the day I learnt ways in which to conduct a productive meeting, we initially started with a mind board with different targets of our solution, for example our market. By establishing our market as busy office workers who require a speedy lunch it allowed us to model our product around our aims.
Over lunch I was able to gain an insight to the work of the Design graduates at Imperial College, it was really interesting to see how they combine utility and an educational aspect in their designs.
After coming up with this product, we then had a talk from Leila Sheldrick, HD of Global Innovation Design Imperial College London about the existing designs of our focus groups. It was fascinating to see the gap in the market the producers found and how these solutions could be used in our everyday life.
After giving all our input of what kind of product, we settled on creating a rentable Tupperware, branding ourselves as a ‘Tupper Club’. We aim to create a Tupperware which can be rented scanning a barcode on the counter of the shop, the sandwich is placed straight into the Tupperware and the person can leave with their Tupperware and just drop it at one of our drop-off points around the area, then outsourcing the washing up process. In order to make this an enticing opportunity for the consumer, we thought about creating an app with a rewards scheme. However we also had to think about how the retailer would benefit, perhaps they get an eco-rating that is displayed on their door front and they would save money from packaging in the long run.
Then to enable us to present our idea effectively Jake Higgens, from Venture Partners gave a talk on how to give a pitch. Allowing us an hour to compose a pitch containing our strategy, the problem, the solutions and the financials. A slightly manic hour of composing our pitch and presentation entailed, but it forced us to hone in on our ideas. We finally finessed it and headed downstairs to the pitching room to address everyone.
While the judges had 10 minutes to judge all our pitches, we were able to chat in the foyer and once again I was able to speak to people from a range of careers that were all at the Hackathon for their shared passion in Sustainability.
The awards were given, I was over the moon for my team to win runners up. After the awards presentation came to a close, my group all exchanged emails and at the moment we are all still strategizing to see how we can take Tupper-club into the up and coming market of re-useable packaging, of which is aiming at a more sustainable way of life.
Phoebe