This mini-lesson covers the Implications of Wider Issues for OCR A-level Product Design: sustainability and the 6Rs, life cycle assessment, and social, moral, ethical and economic issues.
You will apply the 6Rs, read an LCA, weigh Fairtrade, and calculate recycled content. Press Start to begin.
Sustainability
Sustainability and the 6Rs
Design decisions have environmental consequences. The 6Rs guide more responsible design:
Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle — roughly in order of environmental value.
Reduce and reuse save more than recycling, because recycling still uses energy to reprocess materials.
Quick check
Which Rs save most?
?Which pair of the 6Rs generally saves the most environmental impact, and why?
LCA
Life cycle assessment and carbon footprint
A life cycle assessment (LCA) measures impact across four stages:
Raw material extraction, manufacture, distribution and use, and disposal.
The carbon footprint totals the greenhouse gases (as CO2 equivalent) across the whole life.
Quick check
Which LCA stage?
?Mining and refining the aluminium for a product falls under which LCA stage?
Wider issues
Social, moral, ethical and cultural issues
Design has human as well as environmental consequences:
Social — access, inclusion and the effect of products on communities.
Moral and ethical — working conditions, Fairtrade and responsible sourcing; avoiding exploitation.
Cultural — respecting different values, symbols and needs.
Economic — cost, employment and global trade impacts; planned obsolescence is criticised for waste.
Sort it
Sort the wider issues
Tap an issue, then the domain it mainly belongs to.
🌍 Environmental
🤝 Social / ethical
💷 Economic
Quick check
Why choose Fairtrade?
?How does choosing Fairtrade-certified and ethically sourced materials address a wider issue?
Circular economy
The circular economy
The circular economy keeps materials in use in loops — make, use, recover, remake — replacing the wasteful linear take-make-dispose model. It is supported by Design for Disassembly, repairability and recyclable materials.
Match it
Match each term to its meaning
Tap an item on the left, then its match on the right.
Term
Meaning
Calculate
Your turn — recycled content
1A product masses 800 g and contains 600 g of recycled material. Recycled content = recycled mass ÷ total mass x 100. Calculate the percentage recycled content.
%
Hint: 600 ÷ 800 x 100.
Recap
The big ideas to know
6Rs: rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle (reduce/reuse save most)