Shiyara Yousuff Download Resume

A circular hospitality solution for a more sustainable stay.

A design competition project on how five-star hotels could help with the UAE's growing waste problem, starting with the toothbrush in the bathroom.

Industry
Hospitality
Focus
Circular Design · Service Innovation
My role
Research, strategy, service and concept design
Project type
International competition, team project
Competition
Sustainable Hospitality Challenge, 2024

Selected to represent the UAE

The only team from the UAE selected for the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge in Switzerland.

Dispeco was selected from 30,000+ participants, with 100+ teams and projects progressing through the selection process.

30,000+
Competition participants
100+
Teams and projects progressing
1
Only UAE team selected to represent the country

01. Context

Project overview

Waste generation and single-use plastics are a real sustainability challenge in the UAE. Hotels rely on a continuous supply of guest amenities, many of them individually packaged and designed for single use.

We explored how the hospitality sector could play a part, starting with five-star hotels and oral-care amenities.

The goal

To redesign how hotels provide everyday essentials, so waste is prevented at the source instead of managed after disposal.

02. The challenge

Why the experience needed attention.

Hotel amenities are built around disposal. We wanted to change the system, not swap one toothbrush for another.

  • Single use by default

    Amenities are individually packaged and designed to be thrown away.

  • Waste handled too late

    Waste is treated as something to manage after disposal.

  • Unused hotel plastic

    Hotels hold discarded HDPE containers with few local recycling routes.

03. Research and discovery

A field visit turned hotel waste into the raw material.

On a field visit to Flora Inn Hotel in Dubai, we found an abundance of discarded HDPE containers being repurposed around the hotel's offices. Could hotel waste be collected and turned into something useful for the same industry?

  • Hospitality waste

    The scale of waste generated by the industry.

  • Single-use plastics

    Their use in hotel amenities.

  • Recovery options

    Material recovery and recycling in the UAE.

  • Guests and hotels

    Guest needs and operational requirements.

  • Field visit

    Flora Inn Hotel, Dubai.

04. Key insights

From disposable amenities to a circular system.

The opportunity was to redesign how amenities are stored, accessed, distributed, used and recovered.

  • Reduce: minimise packaging and control amenity distribution.
  • Reuse and repurpose: turn hotel waste streams into inputs for new products.
  • Recover: collect and separate used materials after guest use.

05. Design development

Designing around the guest, then behind the guest.

Dispeco was designed as a service ecosystem. A guest's tap of a room card depends on a chain of partners: hotels as sources of HDPE waste, collection and processing partners, manufacturers, material partners, hotel staff and recovery partners.

  1. Guest checks in to the hotel
  2. Room key is prepared for the stay duration
  3. Room key is given to the guest
  4. Guest taps the card on the dispenser
  5. A limited number of toothbrushes is dispensed
  6. Guest uses the Dispeco toothbrush
  7. Brush head is detached after use
  8. Body and bristles go in their own bins

The guest journey in eight steps.

System diagram: hotels supply HDPE waste, a collector gathers it, a polymer factory melts it into granules, a manufacturer moulds the dispenser, a material partner makes the toothbrushes and takes the handles back for composting
Proposed system and partners, from the team's report.
Circularity loop: date palm farm, fallen leaves, moulded toothbrush bodies, dispensers, guest use, detached brush, collected bodies, compost
The material loop: fallen palm leaves in, compost out.

06. The proposed experience

Dispeco: a central oral-care dispenser for hotel bathrooms.

Recycled materials, access technology and controlled dispensing, brought together in one bathroom fixture.

  • Recycled HDPE dispenser

    Discarded hotel plastic containers become the housing.

  • Date-palm toothbrush

    Fallen date-palm leaves as the handle material.

  • RFID access

    Guests use their room key to access amenities.

  • UV-C sanitisation

    Built into the toothbrush storage compartment.

  • Controlled dispensing

    Quantities set by the guest's length of stay.

  • Material recovery

    Used components separated for recovery.

The Dispeco dispenser on a stone bathroom wall beside a round mirror, its storage compartment glowing violet
UV-C light in the storage compartment replaces individual packaging.
Four views of the Dispeco toothbrush: a dark date-palm handle with a detachable white bristle head
Date-palm handle, detachable bristle head.
Render of the Dispeco dispenser with four callouts: recycled HDPE exterior, RFID room-key access, UV-C sanitisation and toothbrush return for composting
The Dispeco dispenser. Team render from the competition report.

07. Reflection

Outcome.

Dispeco remains a concept: a proposal for how hotels could build waste reduction into everyday operations.

  • My contribution

    Contributed across the full project, from research and opportunity identification to strategy, product and service concept development, ecosystem thinking and the final presentation.

  • Proposed impact

    The toothbrush concept proposed up to 90% less plastic than a conventional toothbrush. This is a design projection, not a measured result.

  • Project status

    A collaborative competition concept. Not commercially launched or implemented.