Houston Resident Design Cardboard Computer Case

The cardboard-housed computer, born of his graduate thesis at the University of Houston, is an extreme example of implementing sustainable design to the entire life cycle of a product, he says.

Aside from using a recyclable material, the case requires less time, labor and parts to produce. And when it's time to trash it, he says, there will be fewer parts to send to landfills.

The cardboard case, which can be assembled without fasteners and screws, eliminates the need for those parts and the manufacturing processes used to create them.

“We don't realize how much effort it takes to do. A computer is something that will be disposed of and we'll dispose of it because of its finite life, so why do we put so much effort into producing it?” he asked.

And the quick disassembly makes it easy to separate items from other components and toss them in the recycling bin, eliminating the need to separate screws, metals, plastics and other materials that can go into a case, he notes.

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