REDUCE
How can we live with less plastic? REDUCE is a multidisciplinary research project led by Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) at Oslo Metropolitan University. The project investigates how everyday plastic consumption can be reduced by exploring systemic change across design, policy, and user practices.
Focusing on three key areas—hygiene, leisure, and childhood—the project brings together researchers in design, sociology, and history, alongside industry partners and public organisations.
Future scenarios (Work Package 4) builds on insights and findings from previous research to envision and develop three preferable future scenarios aimed at reducing plastic dependency in key areas of everyday life: hygiene, leisure, and childhood. These scenarios will incorporate new products, services, and systems designed to enable a transition toward significantly less plastic-intensive lifestyles.
To achieve this, WP4 will apply a triangulation of methods:
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Backcasting:
Starting from a normative vision—such as a life free from plastic—we work backwards to identify key milestones and interventions required to reach that future. This approach supports long-term, strategic thinking and helps identify systemic change pathways. -
Norm-Critical Design:
Through the creation of "design things"—provocative and discursive products, services, and narratives—we aim to challenge the dominance of plastic in everyday life. These artefacts will question taken-for-granted norms and routines, opening up space for reflection and critical discussion around material choices and consumption practices. -
Everyday experiments:
We will prototype and test these alternative futures in real-world settings over extended periods. Participants will engage with new material configurations and service models, allowing researchers to study the social, emotional, and practical aspects of transitioning toward reduced plastic use in practice.
The scenarios will be made tangible through the development of physical prototypes, installations, films, and other visual and experiential formats. These "tangibles" will not only serve as communication tools but also foster public engagement and inspire broader societal dialogue.
The final outcomes will be showcased in a REDUCE exhibition, hosted at DOGA in Oslo and at a suitable venue in Sweden, offering a platform to share knowledge and provoke discussion about pathways toward a plastic-reduced future.