Smart Compact At-Home Crusher to Promote Environmental Sustainability

Reducing plastic waste is seen as a grueling effort that takes too much time, but directly involving people in the process could encourage more recycling. We are designing an at-home water bottle and can crusher that addresses the problem of not having any small crushers on the market. Pre-existing products consist of manual can crushers, DIY crushers, and large industrial-size crushers impractical for many home or apartment residents. Our product aims to solve the problem that most existing competitors are experiencing. We would want to address a few issues: saving time, saving space, and having an easy-to-use product. We aim to address these issues by incorporating automated functionality. Research from other individuals who have done previous studies on this topic was also conducted to understand the nature of prior studies on sustainability and the historical trends in recycling plastic. Our group also analyzed several designs using their customer needs matrixes and FMEA analysis. The selected design is then justified based on the matrixes and customer needs. A stress analysis of the structure is simulated, and structural corrections are discussed. Our design has been finalized, and we have already begun manufacturing the product.