The Weighstation is a project designed to make the public become more aware of the problems regarding global warming. The groups had the task to create an intervention that could be implemented into the real world in hope to educate the public.

In America, the rate of trash per capita is increasing rapidly. Compared to the other countries of the world, the amount of trash produced in the United States has grown significantly.

The team’s goal is share their knowledge with the public by building an intervention where people can physically feel how bad the problem is. Instead of handing out flyers and attempting to orally teach people, the Weighstation allows them to learn in an enjoyable way. The groups intervention was a ten-foot-tall booth that allows users to to pull a number of ropes to feel the difference in weight that represents each countries trash per capita. After the person pulls each rope, they can go behind the station and learn more about how much garbage each country emits.

After two miniature-sized prototypes, the group began construction on the solid-wood intervention by sizing, sawing, screwing and painting the life-size structure. Part of what the team wanted was a visually appealing product that would interest the public into trying it for themselves.

The United States represents the country with the most waste per capita, and to compare that, they chose the Czech Republic which has the least. To allow more comparison, Spain and Turkey were used to show a close-to mid point between the highest and lowest. The weights are represented through trash bags containing exactly half of the true weight per capita. The bags are connected to a pulley system which allows the user to feel the weight from the other side of the intervention.

The group is very happy with the work put into the final project. After a thorough prototyping stage and a solid amount of confusion and disagreement, they were able to produce an extremely viable intervention. This product gets the message across that they were aiming to reach the community with. The Weighstation would be a great product to be included in public areas such as parks, cities, and museums.