For my project, 'Designing for a Political Scene', I chose to focus on sanitary products and their implications for women. Through my research I discovered that in the UK, sanitary products such as tampons and pads are classified as 'non-essential' items - thereby having added tax. For comparison, some examples of 'essential' items include crocodile meat, helicopters and alcoholic jelly. In my outrage, I discovered a small petition started by a fellow Goldsmiths student that works towards eliminating the Sanitary Tax. At the time of discovery, the change.org campaign had fewer than 10,000 signatures. To date, it has amassed over 320,000. My contribution to the campaign included reaching out to the founder, Laura Coryton, and initiating removing sanitary tax from our student union through a petition. I also amassed media attention around the change.org campaign and the success of our Goldsmiths petition by researching feminist contacts who had a journalistic presence. In addition to this, a small, but still noteworthy contribution included designing promotional stickers that were strategically placed on sanitary bins, which helped increase awareness. 

The success of the campaign has been astronomical. In March 2016, David Cameron vowed to eradicate the tax. Following Brexit complications, the date has been postponed. Stay tuned

Smør is a food start-up selling ‘smørrebrød’, a traditional Danish sandwich. I created the brand for the company including logo, packaging design and tone of voice.

As opposed to depleting materials, human hair is increasing due to the 7 billion people on our planet and ever growing population. I also based my decision on the fact that I wanted a material that I could easily obtain and experiment with. Despite human hair's many positive properties, it is a largely underused resource, which I feel has many opportunities for sustainable intervention. Some of the many qualities of human hair are that it is extremely strong, elastic, easily mouldable and organic.

Gaps

Although the trade of human hair is growing, there are still gaps in the market. The general interpretation of human hair is that it is "waste" and as such, useless. The issue I have identified is the environmental problems in urban areas caused by human hair waste. "While there is a large body of research on biology of human hair, there is very little literature on systematic environmentally safe management of human hair waste. Human hair is still considered a waste material in most parts of the world and as such, its accumulation in waste streams causes many environmental problems.

Intervention

As the main source of pollution from hair waste stems from urban areas and improper waste disposal, I have chosen to focus on recycling hair from hair salons. By focusing on the main contributor to human hair waste, I hope "to recollect the old, to produce the new: that is the task of Anamnesis in order to create sustainable change."

The goal of my project is to make "matter matter" (Stengers in Bryant, Srnicek, and Harman, 2011) through creating an entrepreneurial business activity related to the re-use of human hair. 

Locks of Love is a non-profit organisation that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada suffering from long-term medical hair loss. I was inspired by their not-for-profit approach as well as donating to those in need. As human hair scrap is free due to donation from salons, the only costs would be from collection and transport. The name of my proposed project is - Heads for Beds.

Whilst studying Sustainable Purchasing at Copenhagen School of Design & Technology, I designed the concept for children's backpacks through a collaboration between Swedish brand Fjällraven and Finnish Moomin.