Bicycle Made of Plastic Waste Review

Our team had the idea of creating a bicycle that is made out of plastic wastes and also include a built-in energy pack that is removable so that it can act as a power bank to charge any electrical appliances such as mobile phones. By pedaling the bicycle, kinetic energy produced from this action can be converted into electrical energy which helps to charge the energy pack that is included with the bicycle. In addition, the bike will include some safety features so that cyclists would more likely choose our unique bicycle widely. Lastly, several wire holders will be attached to ensure that the wires used to connect the energy pack will not get tangled up while using the bike, this is to provide better organisation of these wires which give more safety to cyclists using it. We name our unique and one of a kind bicycle, RE-BIKE.

Plastic is known to be one of the most wasted material that take long years to decomposed. To resolve this issue, our product could help reduce the amount appropriately. There is also the issue of bicycles being unpopular as there are better alternatives to reach people's destinations. By that, this is where our bike is trying to introduce something new to attract potential customers as there is almost no bicycles ever created with a built-in energy pack. A bicycle made from recycled plastics is the title of this article, it stated that in Netherlands they successfully made bicycle from plastic that is lighter, cheaper and doesn’t rust like steel. They also mention that it is energy efficient. From this we had the idea that it is possible to manufacture bicycle from recycled plastics.

The article is titled ”from plastic bottles to bikes: student design team wins prize for “juicy” idea “ is written by Erica Schlaikjer [ May 19, 2009 ]. In the article stated that a team of students from Appalachian state university figured out how to make a working bicycle out of recycled plastic bottles. This statement reinforced our doubt of the success of making a bicycle out of plastic and also take some of the ideas for design of the bike. The idea of using energy converting of motion concept from Enomad uno. It is a portable water generator that converts water moving energy into stored energy that can be used to charge any devices that suitable. We get the source from Youtube channel called Tech HD, which the video is titled “5 Amazing Gadgets that will shock you.”

From the articles made by Claire Guern, titled “The Great Plastic Tide” explaining about the usage of plastic has been increasing from years to years and have become problems on every aspects especially the ocean which involves with marine life creatures that is threatened by it. In this video explaining about a bike made from waste materials and also the production method of the bike, about 11kg of wastes been compressed to create the bike. The concept that we take from the video is that how the bicycle being manufactured.

Some of the benefits of cycling are such as improving the mental well being. There are so many ways that exercise can boost your mood: there’s the basic release of adrenaline and endorphins, and the improved confidence that comes from achieving new things such as completing a sportive or getting closer to that goal. Former Hour Record holder, Graeme Obree, has suffered from depression through much of his life, and told us: “Getting out and riding will help people suffering with depression… Without cycling, I don’t know where I would be.” Cycling promotes weight loss, building muscles, better lung health, reduce heart disease and cancer risk.

Our objective is to make a bicycle made out of a non-biodegradable material (plastic) with an energy pack included in the bike itself. Also, we are trying to introduce a better alternative of everyday transportation, which is by using a bicycle, and help people realize how pedaling a bicycle brings more benefit than just a healthy body. One example of the benefits is pedaling can produce electrical energy which can be used for so many things. 

The purpose is to reduce the amount of plastic waste in Brunei, but it could also be in the whole world. In addition to that, our product is an eco-friendly type of transportation that can help reduce harmful gases released in the air which causes air pollution. The built-in battery pack found in our product will provide a renewable energy as the energy comes from paddling the bicycle ( converting kinetic energy into electrical energy).

This is the energy pack that is rechargeable. The way it charge is by converting the kinetic motion from paddling the pedal into electricity by using the concept that are used in the product called “enomad uno”. The seat for our product is ergonomic as it gives the effect of comfortness to our customers. The seat that is installed on our bike is padded with the best quality of sponge which makes it soft to sit on and can be used for a very long time. The sponge will be layered with leather to ensure our customers got the most comfort while using our bicycle.

Like other bicycles, Re-Bike also include the rear light and front light for the safety of users when riding the bicycle at night with the addition of signal indicators at the back to indicate other drivers when our customer is trying to change lanes. The main body of the bicycle is made out of strong plastic structures to support the weight of riders. Different varieties of colour selection are also available according to customers favours which some of it are neon bright colours to increase visibility during nighttime.

The rims of the bicycle comes with vibrant colours which also helps to increase visibility of the bicycle when it is being used at dark places. The colour of the rim can also be selected by the customers themselves so it becomes their own desired, dream bicycle. In conclusion, the designs of this bicycle helps to satisfy the customers needs and wants. The custom-made colours helps to bring peace to a person's mentality as it will be an eyeful (their favourite colour or colours that helps them to feel the sense of calmness). Moreover, the safety features installed on our product will help to increase a person's safety when using our bicycle in dark places or when using it on big roads.

There are varieties of methods available such as survey, interviews, research, observation and many more. Our team has decided to use survey as our method to collect data and feedback from the public as this project focused on public’s opinions. We wanted to use interview method only if the results from the survey doesn’t really answer the questions that we wanted to find out. The questions included in the survey are mainly about our product, Re-Bike. 

Example of the questions are people's opinion on having certain features added to a bicycle, the usage of bicycle in this country, amount of money people are willing to pay for a bicycle and many more. For research purposes, some demographic questions will be asked to help us understand more about our product that is to be manufactured. A copy of the survey questions that we distributed is attached at the end of this report. Including the demographic questions, there are 15 questions in total.

We distributed the survey during the duration of our mid semester break which is around one week. We use google docs survey to collect data needed for our project. The link to the survey was spread around using an application called Whatsapp due to its popularity among Bruneians. We gave out the test survey to few of our coursemates after finishing the survey questions and before spreading it to the public to ensure that they understand the questions we’re trying to deliver. Most of the questions are straightforward, however some of the options in the survey confuses our coursemates. We made some changes to the options and questions so they are easy to understand.

After finalizing and making some changes, the survey was distributed to 60 people with different ages and gender to try and find what type of bicycle meet their desire. Improvement on the bicycle is also our motive for doing this survey. This survey were distributed via internet as it is the easiest and fastest way to spread it. After receiving the results of the survey, we used google forms and microsoft spreadsheet to generate charts from the results so that we can use them to analyse our findings and make our conclusions. 

There are different types of graph and chart used to represent our data that we collected. The types of graph usually used are pie charts and bar graphs, other types of graphs such as line graph and histogram may also be used but it depends on the data were trying to show. In this section we decided to choose the simple charts to presents our data. We are using bar graphs and pie charts because it is easier to understand.