NZ Police Kevlar recycling project

PROject aim: Frontline Police Officers face intense, potentially life-threatening situations that require body armour for personal safety. But while body armour performs its primary function well, from a sustainability perspective its lifecycle is poor, and being constructed from materials not easily recycled, it's destroyed at the end of its functional life. For a number of reasons, many other items Police rely on in their role have a difficult lifecycle, mostly related to their role in protecting or identifying Police on duty. We're going to be working with New Zealand Police / Nga Pirihimana O Aotearoa end-of-life products to see what industrial design can do to open up opportunities at the end of their functional life. Your solution could range from a material reuse to the design of a product to the development of an initiative or business model – or something we haven’t thought of yet. The focus is on reusing the components of body armour, but there are other Police materials and items that be used. You can bring in other materials as necessary, although you’ll obviously want to consider the lifecycle of these materials as well.