Earthlings

Long description

Today Healthcare products contribute a large portion of global GHG emissions. And Lateral flow test / rapid test are one of the widely used medical technology – however unfortunately lateral flow based tests are “throwaway technology” , with most tests manufactured being single use and non-recyclable. Most will be incinerated along with other medical waste but many will still end up in landfill. More than 400 million Lateral flow kits are manufactured every year each of which are used for for malaria and HIV tests . Perhaps the most well-known application of lateral flow technology—and the use that drove the early development of the technology—is the home pregnancy test. The problem Earthlings is trying to address with this project is of three fold to design products that are more sustainable | To design services that could be more sustainable| To also address design gender gap problem.

We aim to do so by replacing cheap plastic housing by a paper based housing, by re-looking at the design itself so it is easy to use and can be used directly to avoid excessive plastic waste such as droppers, plastic cups etc and also by keeping the packaging minimal and discreet. A particularly powerful feature of Earthlings is the ability to map results using QR code provided on the tests and utilizing the power of smartphones which will allow women to  gaining the access to early diagnosis and decentralize knowledge about women’s sexual and reproductive and making healthcare services more accessible and affordable.

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