Sustainable cleaning kit 'Loop' wins Gold Award in product design category

Looop is a cleaning kit for washing reusable menstruation pads for reducing period poverty for menstruators. Such as refugees in water-scarcity regions, asylum seekers in financial difficulties, or people who want to menstruate in a sustainable way. Using buoyancy Force to reduce water required for washing. With injection modeling, the total cost is around £3 for the whole set including the Recycled PP-made washing parts and pads. Expects to have a 5 years lifespan which covers the minimum time that a refugee stays in the camp waiting for identity approval.

Photo credit: Designer: Cheuk Laam Wong

Inspiration & Aim of Looop

Looop Can is Cheuk Laam's final year product design project that came across from September 2020 to March 2021 in Central Saint Martins. At that time, She just heard the news about a fire destroying Moria Camp that left 130,000 people without shelter in Greece. The refugee crisis is one of the gravest humanitarian disasters and women suffer more vulnerabilities in this insecure journey such as widespread gender-based violence in the camp. They need to have privacy, safety, security space, and access to water and soap to clean.

Photo credit: Rendering Artist: Rubymaky

 Capturing the purpose of Looop Can is to guarantee women’s spatial mobility with dignity and fundamental human rights particularly:

1. The right to water and sanitation 
2. The right to health
3. The right to non-discrimination including no barriers to receiving education

Hence, Looop Can is an affordable cleaning kit for washing reusable menstruation pads for reducing period poverty in water-scarcity regions. Knowing almost 60% of female refugees suffer period poverty problems as they rather spend financial support on food or baby diapers. Most of them come from strictly religious countries that see inserting tampons as taboo. This inspires her to design a product that can protect fundamental human rights to water, sanitation, and health for menstruators from 12 to 24 years old, who suffer language and culture barriers and have limited financial ability.

Photo credit: Pad Maker: Rose Wei & Larry Turner

About the pad design, through researching the material used in reusable pads that are less likely to cause skin allergies. Cheuk Laam designed the pad to have separable layers so that they dry quicker regardless of the weather. The quick-drying bamboo fabric became an ideal option as it takes half a day to dry indoors and keeps the temperature for wintertime and cooling for summertime. A rectangular-shaped design reduces fabric off the cut waste and is less like menstrual-related products from a distance that reducing gender stigma in refugee camps. The Pad can be made by volunteers and distributed to refugees. Or it can be an opportunity to bring financial security to refugee women by paying livable wages for pad manufacturing.

About Waveee Design

At Waveee Design, sustainable development serves as a guiding principle in decision making about material selection, system service, manufacturing methods, and community involvement. It is an honour for Waveee Design to join the journey to end gender misinformation by bringing marginalized peopleto the forefront to participate in economic activities through design.

About Cheuk Laam Wong

Originally from Hong Kong, Cheuk Laam Wong is an award-winning London-based product designer. Her main design philosophy focuses on affordable social design that brings long-lasting positive emotions to vulnerable communities. This has led her on a design journey that protects fundamental human rights to water sanitation and health. She is also a keen UX designer who not only designs beautiful interfaces, but who is also passionate about democratizing knowledge and incentivizing learning. After graduation, she co-founded Waveee Design with Ruby Maky in order to generate social impacts through multidisciplinary design works.