Namaste
Bulbul - Designing a Circular System for Sustainable Parenthood
Project Context: IKEA Brief: "How to turn the tide to enable more sustainable lives at home."
Focus Area: Encouraging mindful buying and proper disposal of baby products and toys among new parents.
Solution: Bulbul, an AI-integrated mobile application and service ecosystem for managing a child's toy lifecycle.
The Challenge: Unsustainable Nests
Bringing a child into the world is both magical and overwhelming. Amidst the joy, parents often find themselves surrounded by an ever-growing pile of toys and baby products, many of which are quickly outgrown or discarded.
IKEA’s brief asked a critical question : “How might we help people live more sustainably at home?”
We decided to focus on the early years of parenthood — a period of high emotional attachment, rapid consumption, and significant waste generation. The challenge was not just to design a product, but to reimagine a system of care, circularity, and community.
Research & Insights :
We began by speaking with 15 new parents, observing how they buy, store, and dispose of baby items. We also mapped IKEA’s sustainability framework and explored circular economy models.
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Emotional Attachment: Parents hesitate to let go of toys because they carry memories.
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Lack of Awareness: Few knew where or how to responsibly dispose of used items.
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Convenience Wins: Sustainable actions often lose against daily chaos and time pressure.
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Storage Overload: Homes gradually fill with outgrown toys and baby gear.
These insights revealed that sustainability for parents needs to be emotionally intelligent, not guilt-driven — embedded seamlessly into their routines.
The Core Question:
How might we encourage new parents to practice mindful buying and proper disposal of baby products by promoting a circular product lifecycle and sustainable lifestyles?
The Insight Moment
The “aha” moment came from a parent who said: “I wish there was something that could tell me when my child is done with a toy and what to do with it next.”
That led us to a key insight:
Sustainability isn’t a single act — it’s a journey of transitions.
This insight shaped Bulbul — an ecosystem that grows with the child and helps parents make conscious, convenient, and caring decisions.
The Solution: Introducing Bulbul
Bulbul is designed as a Sufficiency-based Circular System to transform the linear consumption model into a self-sustaining loop, focusing on managing children’s toys, a primary source of clutter and waste.
Bulbul is a mobile app and end-to-end service that utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) to guide parents through the sustainable lifecycle of their children's toys, built around the four Rs:
RESELL
REPAIR
REUSE
REMAKE
Bulbul is designed as a Sufficiency-based Circular System to transform the linear consumption model into a self-sustaining loop, focusing on managing children’s toys, a primary source of clutter and waste.
Declutter & Sort (AI-Integrated Sorting):
RESELL
Resell: Parents are connected to a one-stop community to sell second-hand toys to like-minded parents at a lower price, instantly increasing the product's lifespan.
REUSE
Reuse: Provides organized channels for donating quality items to meet the needs of BPL families.
REPAIR
Repair: Parents can pay for a toy repair service to prolong the useful life of broken items, addressing the high-quality items that simply need fixing.
REMAKE
When a toy truly reaches its end-of-life, the service facilitates collection to convert the plastics into microplastics. These microplastics can then be reformed into other valuable products, such as construction bricks or new materials.
Bulbul is designed as a Sufficiency-based Circular System to transform the linear consumption model into a self-sustaining loop, focusing on managing children’s toys, a primary source of clutter and waste.
Business Model: For this Service Model
Key Features
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Smart Inventory: Parents scan or log toys; AI tracks age suitability and usage.
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Growth Alerts: Notifications when a toy is outgrown — with options to donate, recycle, or upcycle.
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Circular Marketplace: Connects families to exchange toys locally through verified networks.
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Emotional Archiving: Create digital “memory albums” before parting with old toys.
Expected Impact
Outcomes
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30% reduction in toy waste per household (estimated via behavioral modeling).
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Increased community engagement through local sharing networks.
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Enhanced brand trust for IKEA as a sustainability enabler, not just a retailer.
Beyond metrics, Bulbul redefines what sustainable parenthood can feel like — empathetic, joyful, and continuous.
Reflection
Designing Bulbul taught us that sustainability is not only about materials — it’s about mindsets and emotions.
Parents don’t need more guilt; they need gentle systems that support them.
By connecting emotional value with circular behavior, Bulbul transforms sustainability into a natural part of family life.
“The most sustainable toy is the one that’s loved, shared, and remembered.”