The products my partner and I created are designed to create a more harmonious environment between pets, pet owners, and those live or work in neighboring areas. The design specifically targets India and China, where dogs are traded to consumers. For children, dogs represent a lesson of responsibility and caring; for adults, dogs help to establish life rhythm and guard the residences; for elderlies, dogs are great companions and take the symbolism of happiness and vitality. However, despite these positive connotations of having a dog as part of the household, there are strict rules established about owning dogs in Asian countries.
Fig. 1 – Posters for the products
In the Chinese capital of Beijing, dogs were once banned from the city due to reasons such as environmental concerns. So what is the cause of this severe regulation? By outreaching related organizations –China Beijing Kennel Club and AMTM (Animals Matter to Me Mumbai) – we finally found out the answer; it is because the selfish, unattended disposal of dog excrements that fill up the streets, incubating bacteria of infectious disease. The feedback provided by the organization were shocking. In Xi’an China, a journalist took a walk in the city’s central park and recorded the amount of excrements he had to pick up: in a distance of 500 meters, the weight of excrements he collected was 6.5 lbs. Probably enough to make a 1:1 sculpture for a small size dog. In Shi Yan, another journalist took a 1 hour walk near the river and noticed at least 20 excrements on the road – most them were trampled already. These left behind dog poops not only look disgusting and stinks, they also harmed the aquatic system as many hosts simply throw the poop into the nearby water source. This action of dumping creates potential of bacteria growth, eventually developing into disease such as cholera that damaged our body system significantly. The expenditures governments have to spend to ensure the cleanliness of the city or to reinforce the health system is also putting a great pressure on the economic system of the countries. In order to raise citizens’ awareness on hygienic problems that these accumulating excrements has created, Beijing established a national legislation on the owner’s fee for mismanaging their dogs. The scenarios we heard were very disappointing and unbelievable. Thus, Vii and I decided to design a product that can be made easily from low-cost, sustainable materials to support the actions these organizations made in creating a more satisfying living condition.
However, we also found out the causes of the improper disposal in India and China are very different. In India, the main reason is the lack of disposal bags and bins that can be found in the country. As people don’t want to dispose dog poops in their own house, they will simply leave the poop as it is without cleaning it up. On the other hand, many cities in China already have similar dog excrements disposal bag and bin stands established on the streets, but most owners neglect these stations because they don’t want to pick up the stinky turd by hand. Or simply, they are busy on their phones and didn’t even notice their dogs are pooping. Therefore, we built individual product for each country to address the issue. For India, we have a disposal bag box designed to be hooked or attached to a free-standing post in the shape of a dodecahedron. For China, the product was designed as a dog diaper made similar to the shape of thong but have two stripes instead of one.
Fig. 2 – Disposal bag box Technical Drawing
Fig. 3 – Dog Diaper Design Process
Overall, the purpose of both designs are to help dog owners in India and China manage their dog’s ‘leftover’ more effectively and easily. The materials used are intended to be sustainable; And as the collected dog excrements are compostable, we expected they will eventually made good compost for gardens and farms.
