TL;DR - Offer us ideas about how to better solve the increasing problems stemming from existing forms of packaging (for example: how to recycle packaging at home, present new ways to package things, suggest new uses for used packaging, reexamine the materials used for packaging, and more), film a one-minute clip presenting your prototype. First prize in the competition - NIS5,000! There are also valuable prizes for the other winners.

The Creativity Challenge 2022: The Packaging is Coming Out of the Box!

Did you know that an average 3.3-ton apartment in Rehavia produces around 2.2 tons of waste each year???

On average, each of us produces two kilograms of waste per day. The packaging will take many years to decay. Plastic, for example, will only begin to break up after 450 years, and let’s add to that another 50-80 years for the process to come to an end. There is still no single piece of plastic in the world that has broken up yet!

But recycling solves the problem, no? Not exactly: despite great efforts at recycling around the world, today only around nine percent of packaging is sent to recycling. Therefore: go and recycle!

It’s important to know - the recycling process is extremely beneficial, but it also pollutes the environment. Take the lorry that brings the packaging from the orange recycling bins - it uses fuel and emits polluting gases into the atmosphere. The production of the same lorry includes tens of thousands of parts made from different metals, plastic and other synthetic materials - their production process and transportation involves the use of electricity, and we haven’t even begun to talk about the production process of the packaging that it brings to the recycling…in short - we live in an an endless network of pollution. 

So this year - we decided to enlist the Creativity Challenge in order to offer a solution for the area of packaging: take everything that comes to mind with regard to packaging (food packaging, orders from ASOS, boxes that you never returned to your parents and more) and show us how far you can go with it. Everything is open for thinking and challenging.

What do we expect from you?

That you will film a one-minute clip and show us your prototype and how your idea is supposed to work. Don’t tell us - show us. 


The Prizes


Criteria


The (Important!) Small Print

Why?

At ASPER - HUJI Innovate, the Hebrew University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, we believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are a way of life; the ability, more important than ever, to identify challenges, to develop new and valuable ideas, to advance them and in doing so to improve the reality. The Creativity Challenge is an annual competition that is open to all Hebrew University students with the goal of encouraging creative thinking, solving problems and values of sustainability. The challenge examines your creative and inventive ability to find a solution and to see how it’s possible to think originally about things, in this case, packaging. 


How do we get started?

We know that the beginning is always the hardest part, so let’s help you:

We invite you to turn over every stone and to think about every process from beginning to end - what for example?

Please note - Flowerpots/planters made of ice-cream boxes with spices growing inside them are great, but we expect more from Hebrew University* students! We encourage you to think much bigger! How big? The biggest. When you get there, send us a video! 

Do you want to use the old model of ‘Reuse, Reduce, Recycle’ to stimulate thought? Excellent! Do you want to think about “the way of packaging” (and maybe to draw it) in order to break down the above into small and tangible pieces? Fantastic! Can you use what you are studying for the benefit of this challenge? Can you “import” an idea that you recently saw in another area for the benefit of this challenge? If you scroll down, you will find more important tips on the way to a solution, to winning, to building a new world…

Previous Challenge Winners

As promised - the tips: how to get started, and how to win! 

Creativity and innovation don’t come from a moment of genius. They are a process. In recent years many techniques have been developed around the world to develop ideas. Here they are:

Observations

Innovation doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Open your eyes (and all of your other senses) and look around you. Now look at your daily lives with ideas-tinted glasses - look at problems, moments and processes in which you can change things, actions that you can do in a much simpler way. Does the croissant that you bought next to your apartment have to be wrapped in a small bag, and then another one, and then in another one at the cash register? Where does the packaging from the recycling bin go? What happens to the aluminium tops that we throw into the glass recyclers? What packaging already has “made of recycled materials written on it”?  What doesn’t? 

Solo isn’t Best

Don’t (only) work alone. Yes, you can enter as individuals but it is recommended to enter as a team (up to five participants). Individuals are also encouraged to consult: it’s worth asking friends and family to suggest small or large problems from daily life and to send them to you via Whatsapp. Go over the list of challenges - remember the friends calling from the quiz shows? Who understands a specific problem that you want to address more than you (for example - what materials that aren’t nylon can be used to package food?)? Share your idea with friends, allow them to improve it and to add new elements, but allow yourselves to continue even if everyone doesn’t get excited by your idea. Five minutes to write 30 ideas for new uses of packaging - focusing on time and quantity will shift your attention from self-criticism and will help your brain to fly to strange and unrealistic places - it could be that there you will find one of your better ideas, which you wouldn’t have thought about had you not got over the barrier of self-criticism. 

The Worst Idea 

Try to think of the worst idea you could offer. What is the worst and most stupid thing you could do with packaging? What’s the most complicated and complex? This exercise works best with other people; it’s often out of this competition to find the worst idea that the really good ideas will suddenly pop up. 

Comparisons and Analogies or their Professional Name - Comparative Creativity

“This packaging is like…” What does the packaging remind you? What would Tony Soprano do with it? How would NASA transport the waste from the recycling bin to where it’s going?

Removing

One of the best ways of challenging an existing process is to take existing elements, remove some of them, and to add others. Examples? To order a meal at McDonald’s do you need someone to take your order? Does a restaurant need plates? Does recycling require transportation? Maybe it’s possible to recycle in the same place?

Adding

And in the opposite direction - for a process that you don’t think is efficient, will it be more efficient with additional elements? For example - can the person collecting the trimmed foliage collect the recycling? Can the person selling the bottles also collect them (like Nespresso do with the tablets)? Adding rewards - if we were more rewarded (how?) we would recycle more, etc. 

What Does Google Say? 

The Internet is an amazing source of inspiration. We all seek new ideas by Googling between different sites, links, and platforms. There’s nothing like getting inspiration on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and more..

And if all that isn’t enough, we invite you to take part in a creative thinking workshop that will open your minds a bit. For more details, click here.