Craftswomen from a village in Morocco’s Al Hoceima National Park worked together to help mitigate plastic pollution in the Mediterranean. In workshops and on a Facebook group, the project followed the stages of design thinking, with artisans and researchers sharing, critiquing and improving prototypes of products made from plastic waste or replacing the use of plastics. To verify the effectiveness of design thinking, complemented by Facebook, the researchers analyzed the participants’ prototypes using creative product evaluation criteria: (environmental) value, elaboration, fluidity, novelty, originality and adaptation. After six months, some of the prototypes designed by the participants lacked elaboration and were difficult to market. Over the following months, the participants invented more efficient techniques for reusing plastics and improved the aesthetics of their products. Design thinking, aided by Facebook, would make some contribution to solving a complex environmental problem.
