Public places are hot spots for contagious diseases and good hand hygiene is key in preventing infections. To help in the fight against pandemics, Fortum, a clean-energy company and the consumer plastic packaging recycler in Finland has developed a sustainable hands-free door handle.
The innovative handle made from Fortum Circo® recycled plastic makes it possible to open a door with your arm. The door-handle supplement, which attaches to a door, was piloted in spring 2020 with a grocery store and was found to clearly reduce hand contact with surfaces.
The CIRCO handle has been awarded in multiple international design competitions for it’s clever execution and rapid development during the the COVID-19 pandemic.
The whole project was done only on 2 weeks since the starting of COVID-19 pandemic. Two initial design routes were quickly created, 3D printed from CIRCO and validated in collaboration with the largest retail chain in Finland, Alepa.
After installing 30 units of 3D printed handles inside the store, an extensive ethnographic research and user inquiry was conducted. We then decided to selected the first design direction for further development.
The handle attracted both domestic and international interest among trade so we started collaborate with Fiskars Group. Fiskars is responsible for the further development, manufacturing and sales of the door handle, previously known as Fortum Handle.
Commercial production and international sales of the handle started during the summer of 2020. The handle is manufactured in Finland at Fiskars Group’s Billnäs plant in Raseborg. It is made from Fortum Circo® recycled plastic produced at Fortum’s Riihimäki plastics refinery from domestic consumer plastic packaging waste.
