ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

As we as a team considered the hand-held vacuum, I though it prudent to determine the impact that a handheld vacuum has on the environment. Generally speaking, you expect to get anywhere from 7 to 10 years out of a regular sized vacuum, but this is a smaller hand-held version. If we take it for granted that the hand-held version will only be used for minor cleanups we can logically assume that life expectancy will increase. Still, we can’t rule out the fact that the difference in motor size and quality will vary greatly between this model and what used to be your typical everyday vacuum.

 

The components comprising our vacuum fall into three categories:

Metal – 3 lb                             Plastic – 0.5 lb                Fibrous material (air filter) – 0.1 lb

 

Let’s generously say that our specimen will last 7 years and the average person/family will buy 2 in their lifetime. We’re assuming that needs change over the course of people’s lives and also acknowledging the fact that a handheld vacuum was not seen as a necessity in your average household. Data taken in the year 2009 revealed that there were 117,538,000 households in the US. We used this number to calculate the number of vacuums consumed over the course of one generation (50-80 years), and produced some startling numbers.

Calculated Waste:

Metal – 352,614 tons of waste

Plastic – 58,769 tons of waste

Fibrous material (air filter) – 11,753.8 tons of waste

Though it is possible to recycle metal and plastic but we know that recycling is not a priority for the majority of the nation. This is a shocking amount of waste attributed to an item that, in actuality, is unnecessary if a person is already the owner of a regular vacuum cleaner. Since handheld vacuums only majorly serve to save somebody the hassle of taking out their commercial vacuum to clean up messes, the goal should be to make a vacuum that can get the job done while eliminating the pollution that results from the components that make up the unit.