Evaluation

• raw materials used
  • The device does not use much raw material, and is overall pretty efficient. That being said, a few changes could be made. First, the plastic walls could be made thinner; this would lead to an overall decrease in material use without compromising structural integrity. Second, using a whole microcomputer and excessive wires added a waste of metal/semiconductors to the product.
• end-of-life disposal issues
  • The plastic used is only slightly biodegradeable, but is not sufficient in any respect; in addition, the electronics within the device need to undergo specialized recycling to become viable in future products (in which the cost of recycling may outweigh potential benefits).

Revision

To redesign my MDP as a green product, I made the following revisions:

• production
  • The biggest improvement to production would be the reduction of materials used for the case. The plastic is about 50% thicker than it needs to be. This reduction would significantly improve the material efficiency of the product. In addition, the electronics could be compressed, using a smaller electronic to pin a server, removing LEDs or unnecessary features, and by extension reducing the number of wires needed.
  • a further advance would be to use a different material for the case. For instance, using a more environmentally friendly plastic or a biodegradeable material like wood.
• use
  • The case could "hibernate" only turning on to alert the user at specific times determined by a medicine schedule.
• disposal
  • If the material is changed to a biodegradeable one, that would make the disposal process easier. One change to the current product would be to create a recycling program allowing us to reuse the plastic and electronics from previous, outdated devices, reducing the overall footprint.