When Matt MacMillan and Philip Tribe began their thesis project for their Master’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, they centered their focus on one of the most important aspects of any college campus: fun. “We were looking for a fun thesis and trying to see what we could tackle as a major goal and one of our jumping off points was www.thefuntheory.com,” says Philip. The website promotes the idea of using fun to sway behavior in a social environment. “One installation they had was piano keys set up on a set of stairs in order to encourage people to use the stairs rather than the adjacent escalator,” says Matt. Philip and Matt decided to center their project on this approach of creating positive social change with fun as the catalyst.
They began their project, SustainablyFun, and started simple. Matt explains, “We began with the idea of a Coffee Cup Tree to see if we could illicit some response. We realized everyone carried around coffee cups that cannot be recycled and we wanted to draw attention to that fact in a low-fi way.” The Coffee Cup Tree was a structure with wooden poles sticking out from its base that allowed people to add their used cups to the tree to expand the design. “People came by and added their coffee cups and then after it was full, we put out a sign explaining that the cups weren’t recyclable.”
After seeing people respond to this relatively simple project, Philip says, “We started thinking about what games we could tie into our idea. We learned early on that you only have a few moments to capture a person’s attention so our pieces had to stand out and be easily understood. Linking the idea to things that already existed was a good place to start.” The engineers incorporated “High Striker,” a popular carnival game that uses a mallet to send an object up toward a bell, into their next design, Bottle Stomp. This design was more complicated than Coffee Cup Tree, and thus needed some tweaking after its first installment. “Originally we made the launchers like paintball guns shooting bottles off, but liability for this was very high,” says Philip with a smile. “So we kept the idea of air shooting things but made it in a contained environment.” Similarly, their Can Drop uses crushed cans for a game that plays off the well-known “Plinko” from The Price is Right.
One project that had a very different concept was Glowb, which served both as a public art piece and an interactive recycling bin. Glowb repurposed bottles with a different motivation behind it, says Philip. “Part of the continued thinking of what SustainablyFun could be was not only collecting recycling but also considering how you could allow people to rethink what that material could be.” Glowb has poles to hang bottles on and emits increasing amounts of light as each bottle is added.
Since the success of their projects, Matt has graduated, and Philip is in his final year of completing his Master’s degree. Both are now exploring the possibility of taking the next step to begin selling their projects. Philip says, “I think the possibility is there. It comes down to figuring out who that initial right buyer would be and the most appropriate locations. That will drive what the next iteration of the design will look like.”
The engineers have reached out to the Phillies and major amusement parks, sports arenas, and townships to find out about their current recycling systems. Matt says that one large opportunity might come through companies with products that are hard for customers to recycle. “Starbucks has all their coffee cups and getting customers to throw trash into the right bins is a major issue for them. I think that connecting people with a company’s specific products could be one great opportunity for us.”
One of the most impressive aspects of SustainablyFun is their website, which was created by Matt and Philip with the goal of allowing for clear communication. Philip explains, “You say SustainablyFun and everyone gets an amorphous idea, and then when you see one of the projects you understand a lot quicker, and the videos help you to get it even better. It’s nice to say yes this would work, but when you see the projects actually working in the videos and people interacting with them and the excitement of the engagement, it’s the total package.” For the near future, both Philip and Matt plan to maintain their attitudes toward the importance of fun and continue to look for opportunities to do more with their projects.