Design Life-Cycle

Esme Rojas-Perez 

Professor Cogdell 

DES 40A 

5 June 2024

The Life Cycle of CASETiFY CONSCiOUS Phone Cases : Raw Materials 

When searching for a phone case, what is the main component consumers desire ? For most people, it’s probably the aesthetic of the phone case. They want the phone case to match their vibe or personality. Others might search for a case that offers the best protection or functionality. However, only a few will search for a phone case that is the best sustainable. At Casetify, they follow a sustainability pledge which makes them constantly improve what they do. They are dedicated to lightening their environmental footprints for a more sustainable future by engineering phone cases that stray further and further away from harmful plastics. The goal that they are focused on is eliminating all virgin plastics from their supply chain by 2030. The global plastic crisis is undeniable, so more people should make sure they are doing their part by being conscious of the  products they’re consuming. 

Casetify conscious compostable cases are made from a blend of biopolymers, starch and bamboo. To start off with the first raw material, biopolymers were created as a solution to synthetic polymers. Synthetic polymers are mainly derived from raw materials such as petroleum and coal that make them destructive to our environment. However, biopolymers are green composites that are biodegradable that are synthesized from sources which are excessive in nature. They have a super low impact on our environment and are the best alternative to replace the harmful synthetic polymers that are still widely used today. These biopolymers take at most six to seven days to degrade into the soil. Depending on the quantity of bacteria present in the soil, it can be even faster. 

Another raw material used to create Casetify conscious compostable cases is starch. Not only is starch a natural polymer that is largely accessible, but it has been known to have the benefit of its biodegradability since it quickly degrades. This is significant to reduce the waste going to landfills which is a result from synthetic polymers. 

Bamboo is the last raw material mentioned needed for the production of Casetify conscious compostable cases. Like starch, bamboo is a natural fiber that has so many advantages to offer in place of plastic. First off, bamboo can grow rapidly, it has a short cultivation time. Compared to a tree that can take up to sixty years to grow, bamboo only takes about sixty days. It grows up to two meters a day, more rapidly than many trees. Additionally, a bamboo forest can release thirty-five percent more oxygen than a forest which can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions remarkably. It also has very high strength making it one of the toughest natural fibers in the world.It is two or three times stronger than steel.  Bamboo also has good elasticity and low density. To extract the bamboo, methods can include mechanical and chemical methods. Hammering the bamboo can be an example of a mechanical method. Chemicals like boric acid are used to treat or clean the bamboo. All of these materials  decompose via microorganisms into carbon dioxide and water in a properly managed composting facility, satisfying European Union EN13432 and U.S. ASTM 6400D biodegradability standards. The packaging is also made from 100% recycled paper and free of virgin plastic so there are no toxins left behind. 

It doesn’t stop there, to take things a step further Casetify started a recycling program to give discarded cases a second life. After the phone case has been worn out, it can skip the landfills and be sent back to one of the facilities. If based in the U.S. or HK, you can return the  phone cases directly. If not visiting a US EPA website can be used to locate a comport facility nearest to you. At the facilities, they separate the material components and grind them down into finer pieces that are then fused together into Re/Casetify pellets. These pellets become the new raw materials for future cases. This upcycling process does its best to ensure there is little to zero waste. Moreover, to fight the common misconception that sustainable products are not durable, they refine and test every design to ensure that consumers can trust and rely on the products. There is also an incentive if consumers do return their cases back to facilities which include shopping credits or a discount code to encourage customers to follow their mission of  zero waste with no footprint. 

Moss Nguyen

DES 40A

Professor Cogdell

Waste Management of Re/CASTiFY Phone Cases

Casetify is a company based in Hong Kong and Los Angeles that makes stylish and creative phone cases. They have a variety of artists that they work with to create unique phone cases that they think people will want to buy. Casetify as a company values the quality of their products, as well as the impact their products have on the environment, made clear by their recycling program. Casetify is a brand that is very conscious about their waste management which is apparent throughout the life cycle of their products. In order to upkeep their reputation as a sustainable brand, Casetify does their best in creating the least amount of waste possible which can be observed through their choice of raw materials, the quality of their materials, and their recycling program. 

Casetify has a trademarked material that they call Ecotify™ of which they claim to be made up of bamboo, starch, and biopolymers. On their website, they claim that this material they use “will mix seamlessly back into the earth after use, with no toxins left behind” (Casetify). Looking at the individual building blocks of Ecotify™ will help showcase how Casetify plans to become more sustainable. Bamboo is an extremely versatile material that can be used to create a variety of different products. Bamboo can be used to make small things like toothpicks or chopsticks, as well as being used as construction material (“Bamboo Production for Industrial Utilization”). 

 Bamboo can also be eaten as well. The many uses of bamboo means that all parts of the plant can be used one way or another, which leads to less waste being produced. Instead of harvesting bamboo to use one part of it and then throwing it away, those other parts can be collected and transformed into something useful. Bamboo also decomposes much faster than other materials such as wood. Depending on the type of tree, some woods may take anywhere from 50 to 100 years to completely decompose (“The nature cycle”). On the other hand, many products made from bamboo can decompose in approximately three years (Sassy Organics). With how much consumerism people take part in, it's important to realize that constantly throwing away products will accumulate waste faster than it can decompose. Products that use bamboo can reduce this problem, returning back to the earth in a significantly shorter time. It won't solve consumerism, but it can help reduce the amount of waste built up. 

There are two main uses when it comes to a phone case. They are meant to look stylish, reflecting the owner's style, and are meant to protect the phone. As mentioned above, consumerism is one of the ways that excess waste is produced. Poor quality products reflect this phenomena. If someone buys a product and it breaks easily, the person will continue buying more of the same or similar products to replace it, creating unnecessary waste. One of the ways to avoid this is to be able to fix or repair broken products. The other way is to buy good quality products in the first place. Casetify showcases this with their products by providing good quality cases that people will want to keep. Casetify works with many artists to create a variety of different styles including but not limited to pop art, fine art, cartoons, and typography. The unique and varying designs means people can choose cases that they will want to keep. If people like the product they are using, they are less likely to throw them away. The same goes with the usability of the product.  Casetify claims their cases can protect phones up to 156 consecutive drops from four feet (Casetify). The more drops the case can absorb, the better since that means the owner will be able to use the phone case for much longer before having to buy a new one. 

Unfortunately, no one case will be able to be used forever, which is where the Casetify recycling program comes in. Re/casetify is a way for customers to drop off their old phone cases to be turned into new ones. The way the program works is by having the customer drop off old phone cases that they either no longer want, or no longer are able to use, at one of their in person stores. Those old phone cases then get transported to be broken down into small pieces, and get turned into what casetify called pellets. Those pellets are then used as new “raw materials” for other products, including more phone cases (Casetify). This reduced waste by creating a loop for casetify products, a constant cycle of using old products to create new ones. By doing this, phone cases won't end in the landfill and have to wait to decompose and return back to the earth. This way, casetify can control more of the amount of waste that is created. It is by no means a perfect loop, many flaws in the system can interrupt this cycle. Some people may not be able to drop off their old cases. If there are no stores nearby, then people would have to travel to said stores in order to drop off their phones, which may create more waste. There is also the possibility that some people may not know about the program, or simply do not care, which casetify can not do anything about it. 

At the end of the day, reducing the amount of waste on earth is a team effort that both regular civilians and companies need to work on. Without the push for more sustainable options, companies may ignore the environmental impact their products have. Without the companies providing ways for customers to reduce waste, no big significant changes will be made. Casetify does a good job of trying to balance both, to have the company and the customers involved in reducing the amount of waste that is created. Casetify as a company works towards a sustainable product by using raw materials that can easily be broken down and decomposed. They involve their customers by giving them a product that is able to last longer without having to end up in a landfill. They go a step further by providing and advertising a program that takes those potential landfill wastes and turns it into something new. Being able to have  complete sustainability, especially now where consumerism and capitalism create more green than care for the environment, is a difficult task, Casetify does the best it can to provide a company with products that help reduce the amount of waste production. 

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