Recapturing Product as Material Supply: Hoverboards as Garbatrage

Ilan Mandel, Wendy Ju

Abstract: The volatility of modern economics, and marketing paired with highly extended and globalized supply chains produces goods with explicit market inefficiencies. This pictorial explores a design process, “Garbatrage,” wherein designers exploit the difference in value between parts in waste product and those used in new products. Drawing upon our own material re-use of hoverboards, we inductively outline a framework to help designers consider the micro- and macro-economic context of material recapture of waste components, necessary to make for more circular economies and sustainable supply chains at scale. We then apply this framework to identify other potential targets for Garbatrage. We conclude with opportunities for design to make the practice of Garbatrage more widely adoptable.