Idea 30: Fading Ink Snapchat Style

Problem:

Paper – a thing of the past you might think. However, wherever you look, you still see it being used all over the world. Why? Because it is still cheap and easy to produce, vast industries and money making systems have evolved around its production, and many generations have simply become used to it without having  been provided with an alternative that makes the switch away from paper easy enough and without much additional effort involved. Recycling tries to do its part in solving the paper problem, but there is still a lot of room for improvement; “room” that might be there in the first place, because if there would not be a paper problem, the recycling industry might have less to do. However, even if the recycling industry would be perfect, it would still depend on another problem: the willingness of people to recycle.

Solution:

Instead of trying to get people to recycle paper, another option might be to use the paper that has already been produced for longer periods of time.  Imagine that you print a couple of pages worth of text because you are not used to “reading” on a digital screen; its just more comfortable to print the pages and read them in a paper format. However, once you are done reading, what if the text would disappear after a certain point in time, giving you the chance to reuse these pieces paper to reprint other stuff? We know already that disappearing ink exists (http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/disappearink.htm + http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/bf21/), however, this technology has not been perfected yet, which is the reason for why the time factor – in other words, how long the ink is actually visible – cannot be controlled yet. Nevertheless, once that particular problems is solved through advanced chemistry, the brigs would be laid for a new generation of printers that would allow you to reuse the same paper again, and again, and again (the printers would probably have to be able to treat the paper with some sort of chemicals as well to reproduce a baseline state every time the paper is being reused). Although these new printers might not solve the entire paper problem, they might offer an easy cure until generational shifts take place and thus the habits of each generation.

Idea 19: Supermarkets for Singles

Problem:

Wasting food is a problem of developed countries. Some people blame it on the expiration date, some people blame it on peoples’ general wasteful natures, and some people blame it on shopping habits. Whatever the reason might be, there is one aspect that appears to happen quite often: buying too much of one thing which one cannot consume alone before it goes bad based on the volume in which it comes in. This especially happens to singles.

Singles appear to have certain living and eating habits that often don’t go together with what the usual supermarket provides. Quantities for bred are too big, chick peas come in too large containers, chicken wings come in 2kg bags, and marmalade glasses are so big they could last for years.

In the end, much of the food that is bought is opened for a one person meal and later is possibly not used again for however long as “variety” and frozen meals take over the food calendar. As a result, some of the foods that were bought land in the trash, as it is always easier to simply “clean” the fridge instead of checking if the food that was opened three days ago is still eatable (how can we be really sure that this is still good? not sure, so lets throw it away)!!!

Solution:

Supermarkets have about three types of customers: families, couples and singles. As stated, the problem is that the quantities/volume of food of a particular item, which are usually offered, are perfect mainly for families.  Thus, there is possibly an opportunity for segmentation here.

Nowadays, many supermarkets, for example DIA in Spain, bring out their own branded products, which are usually cheaper. Thus, as supermarkets have the possibility to create their “own brands”, they might also be able to determine the quantities of food that are used for one item. If this is the case, segmentation could run its course with the end result of creating small individual supermarkets focused on the market segment of singles.

Taking this one step further:

Once a supermarket like that has been opened, data can be collected on the actual buying habits of singles, (how much is bought of what item) which are based on the assumption that singles buy food for only one particular meal. Once this has been established, supermarkets might be able to “totally” get rid of packaging by providing reusable “containers” (for a lack of a better word) for some particular foods (this is not new as it is already used with fruits and vegetables) Examples:

• Spaghetti: Instead of coming prepackaged, spaghetti could come in larger amounts from which people are able to take what they want based on what they need for their meal and priced based on the weight
• Butter: Instead of coming prepackaged, it could come in a larger container/piece from which certain pieces are taken of and put in the reusable container and priced based on the weight
• Also applicable to frozen foods, coffee, sweets, teas, and maybe even drinks such as water

In the end, one would create a supermarket that offers customizable quantities for most foods available and thus, one that has a positive impact on the society, as it reduces the waste of food and trash in general due reduced packaging and business intelligence focused on buying habits. Also, this type of idea might even create more jobs: How? People usually know what they want to buy or need – the reason for why a shopping list exists. This shopping list could be used to be send to the supermarkets that would then use it to “complete” it the list, taking away what is asked for from the “stock” of foods. To do this many things have to happen in terms of logistics, and part of that is the implementation of more human capital to get this service done in a manageable and timely manner.