Finalist: New Designers/Creative Conscience Environmental Award 2021

Modul: A modular toaster, created to address the issue of e-waste by designing for a circular economy, by Deen Peerthy The inspiration behind this project is sustainability. Through reading great books such as ‘Design for the Real World’ by Victor Papanek, ‘Cradle to Cradle’ by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, and ‘The Story of Stuff’ by Annie Leonard, I realised that design should be used to help better the world, both socially and environmentally. Many products on the market have little use other than simply wasting materials, fulfilling no purpose in helping anyone. In this area of sustainability, I chose the stream of e-waste to solve. I decided to redesign a toaster, a product that often has a very short lifespan and gets thrown away and replaced far too often. I created a modular toaster, designed to last forever, whilst also being able to keep up with ever-changing trends in the design world. The toaster is designed with both mechanical and aesthetical benefits in mind: all the main functioning electronic internals have been integrated into one singular module which is user-serviceable and easy to repair, plus I have made all the cosmetic parts of my toaster modular so that it can be replaced by the users to suit their own preference and style. The cosmetic parts are available in a wide range of colours and combinations (anodised finishes are advised to allow for ease of aluminium recyclability) to suit different interiors and can be replaced to meet variables such as moving accommodation etc. More information about my project can be found here: Behance: https://www.behance.net/deenpeerthy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deenpeerthy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deenpeerthy/ Or feel free to email me: dpeerthy@gmail.com