The ocean served as the inspiration for a project that saw second-year product design students designing and manufacturing cardboard chairs.

Product design lecturers Hester Claassen and Veronica Barnes tasked the students with this project during the second term and said the functional cardboard chairs needed to hold a 100kg person.

Students drew inspiration for their furniture from plants, sea life, crabs, shells and corals and were required to explore innovative ways to build weight bearing structures.

World Earth Day (22 April) and World Oceans Day (8 June) fell within the second term. The theme for this year’s World Earth Day was “End Plastic Pollution” while “Preventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean” was the theme for World Oceans Day.

For World Earth Day Barnes discussed plastic pollution in the ocean with the design students, as well as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “While not all students enjoy swimming or surfing in the ocean, eventually plastic dumped in the ocean will find its way into the food chain, and that affects us all,” said Barnes.

She then challenged the students to help keep plastic out of the oceans by making at least one Ecobrick whilst working on their ocean-inspired furniture project.

The Ecobrick project, which began in Guatemala, uses disposable waste plastic to create something valuable.

Unrecyclable plastic, like foil crisp packets, plastic food packaging or polystyrene, is compressed into 2-litre plastic bottles to form an Ecobrick. Almost two black bags of plastic waste can fit into one Ecobrick.

These thermally insulated Ecobricks can then be used to build low walls, affordable housing, school play areas and temporary displays.

The students learned first-hand about the critical features of comfortable chair design and the potential of humble cardboard as a structural material and produced inspiring and original chair designs. At the same time, they also gained a new awareness of discarded plastic that makes its way into the world’s oceans and kept plastic around them out of the ocean by making Ecobricks.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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CPUT is planning a series of events between World Environment Day and World Oceans Day to raise awareness about the effects of plastic pollution. 

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June is Beat Plastic Pollution and for World Oceans Day on 8 June, it is about preventing plastic pollution.

Extended Curriculum Programme Coordinator in the Faculty of Applied Sciences Beatrice Opeolu drives activities to create awareness around climate change and the environment as the leader of the Climate Change and Environmental Research Focus Area.

 “There is strong evidence now that plastic is everywhere, in the water we drink, in river systems, in the oceans. Studies have also proved that plastics of different sizes and different types cause different kinds of ecological imbalances in the environment at large,” said Opeolu.

The first event is a day-long symposium on 5 June at the Science Building on the District Six Campus. Themed Beat Plastic Pollution, the symposium will feature six speakers talking about various effects of plastic pollution.

Renowned toxicologist Prof Augustine Arukwe from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, will talk about endocrine disruptive effects of plastic-derived contaminants.

CPUT’s Oceans Research Chair Prof Ken Findlay will give a glimpse into plastic pollution and marine animal entanglements and mortalities while Aaniya Omardien of The Beach Cooperative will talk about beach clean-ups.

Prof Jonathan Okonkwo of the Tshwane University of Technology, Nitasha Baijnath-Pillay of the Department of Environmental Affairs and North-West University doctoral student Karin Minnaar round out the programme.

The next day,  6 June, between 11 am to 1 pm, CPUT students and staff are invited to take part in an effort to clean up the precinct around the District Six Campus.

Thursday 7 June, between 11 am to 1 pm, is set aside for invited guests to meet CPUT researchers, lecturers and students. “They will be based at the Applied Sciences Faculty to meet anyone from the institution who wants to work with them or just network,” said Opeolu.

On Friday 8 June, Arukwe will deliver a public lecture at the Saretec building on Bellville Campus followed by a panel discussion, between 12 am and 2 pm. The public lecture is titled “Plastic components as significant source for environmental obesogens: A societal concern for human and wildlife health.”

“After the lecture, all of the colleagues we invited for the symposium, except for Aaniyah Omardien who will not be available, will sit in a panel discussion and chat about plastic pollution and plastic issues.

“The audience will have the opportunity to ask them questions and to contribute to the discussion,” said Opeolu.  

Find the World Environment Day & Oceans Day programme here.

Written by Theresa Smith
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The Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability Research Focus Area (RFA) will host a symposium tomorrow (8 June) to commemorate World Environment Day and Oceans Day.

World Environment Day is marked on 5 June every year and is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach. This year’s theme is Only One Earth: The United Nations celebrates World Oceans Day on June 8 every year, and this year’s theme is: “Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean”.

The symposium will be held online (MS Teams) and is scheduled to start at 10 am.

Prof Beatrice Opeolu, Leader of the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability Research Focus Area, said the symposium aims " to create awareness about the existential threat of climate change and our daily life choices to man and the environment”.

“We have only one earth, so it must be cherished and handled with care rather than abused. Oceans play an important role in ecosystem balance, so unhealthy practices against our oceans affect oceans economies and human and environmental health.”

She said attendees will be privileged to listen to environmental scientists within and outside CPUT discussing some of these issues.

“We also hope to use the event to foster collaborations for research and community engagement activities.”

Chioma Chikere, Professor of Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, will deliver an invited speech.

Department of Environmental and Occupational Studies staff will also share their waste management initiatives with the CPUT community.

Click here to join the meeting.

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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