Pipe Dreams

Over 11,500,000 single-use, plastic argeileh (tobacco water pipe) hoses are disposed of in Jordan every year. That's roughly 440,000,000 pipes a year in the Arab world - enough to wrap around the world almost 16.5 times. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on public health due to their devastating side effects.

Pipe Dreams proposes a system of electronic smoking devices and service that is designed according to circular economy design principles. Smoking cafes subscribe to a service that delivers the smoking apparatus, provides training and upskilling to their current staff so that they're not left without a job and sends e-liquid and spare parts every month as needed for a monthly subscription cost that’s less than what they currently pay. 

The solution is not just better for the environment, it's safer for the public and is cheaper for c.

It is conservatively estimated that almost 11,500,000 single-use plastic argeileh hoses are used every year in Jordan alone. Extrapolated to the population of the Arab World, that’s roughly 440,000,000 per year. When placed end-to-end, that’s enough to wrap around the world about 16.5 times. 

Moreover, argeileh also consumes roughly 1,604 tonnes of coal and about 300 tonnes of tobacco per year in Jordan and that’s in a country that comprises less than 3% of the Arab population. Tobacco related illnesses cost the economy over 500 million dinars ($700 million) and it was ranked 9th globally for tobacco consumption in 2016. 

Argeileh, hugely popular in the Arab world and only growing in popularity globally has not been studied enough for its adverse health effects and avoided scrutiny over its environmental impact (until now) - from plastic waste that while sometimes recycled, is shipped back to countries where it finds its way to water streams, and its reliance on coal.

Our solution targets the 9.3% of the population that frequent argeileh cafes and smoke argeileh across the Arab world but we would like to start in Jordan. We have spoken to many regular argeileh smokers to better understand what is so appealing about it to them and have narrowed it down to three main needs; the amount of smoke released, the social aspect of being around friends while sharing an argeileh and the diverse range of flavours.

We have also spoken to several cafes and restaurants that serve argeileh to better understand their wants and needs. Ultimately, it comes down to providing a service in demand at an economical cost to both the cafe and consumer. 

Separately, we have highlighted the importance of making sure no one loses a job through the implementation of any solution as the argeileh industry employs a large number of workers in a region where youth unemployment the is highest in the world at about 29% and would teach new skills for a modern economy.

Pipe Dreams utilises vape technology to create a monthly subscription service that sells argeileh vapes, designed to cradle to cradle principles, to cafes or restaurants and provides all the maintenance knowledge, e-liquid, spare parts and upgrades for a price equal to or less than what they currently pay without any of the waste.

Step 1: When a cafe or restaurant subscribes to Pipe Dreams, we take their current argeilehs, melt down the glass and aluminium, stainless steel or brass (which are the most common metals argeilehs are made of) and recycle them into Pipe Dream vapes.

Step 2: Each customer is sold a number of vapes according to their needs and charging systems that can charge five at a time.

Step 3: We train their staff on how to maintain them, change the eliquid and troubleshoot any problems so that the same staff that was preparing coal and argeilehs can now learn basic electromechanical skills.

Step 4: Mouthpieces (which are currently made of single-use plastic) which will be made from the same metal as the vape are collected weekly from customers, sanitised and sent back for reuse.

Beyond that, parts that have been used past their safety period (such as atomiser coils) or that have become damaged, are collected by Pipe Dreams, remade into their respective parts and sent back to the customers.

Pipe Dream vapes are designed to be easily disassembled and maintained and each material can be separated from other materials to go into their respective technical cycles.

Our solution aims to eradicate any plastic or other waste from the argeileh industry, reduce the overcultivation of tobacco and significantly reduce the public health risks to both smokers and non smokers that frequent these social spaces.

So far, most solutions out there aim to make argeileh smoking less dangerous (by replacing coal or tobacco). These solutions have so far failed to attract mainstream attention and tend to be much more expensive than the current situation.

Our approach is unique because it is the only one focused on cutting out the plastic waste and most of the health effects at a cost that is cheaper to cafes and the same or cheaper to consumers.

We manage this by utilising already existing vape technology and a circular economy, subscription based model, to reinvent the argeileh pipe while leaving the end user with very much the same experience. 

By offering a subscription service, we can make sure that any damaged or disposable part of our product is recollected and cleaned, fixed or remade into the same part or upgraded so that nothing ends up in landfill. We have selected glass and aluminium as our predominant materials so that no virgin material is needed.

Finally, this also allows us to create social impact by upskilling the current labour force with basic electromechanical skills to be able to maintain and prepare the Pipe Dream argeilehs for use.

Our solution utilises vape technology at its core coupled with a first-of-its kind business model in the Arab World. Our design was selected because vape technology is heavily associated with e-cigarettes in the Arab World and when we provided argeileh smokers with vapes or e-cigarettes, they were not convinced of it as a replacement and so it as a far inferior design to an argeileh (which is steeped in heritage).

We realised that stylising it as an argeileh hose at a size that is similar to what already exists removed any doubt that this is an argeileh first and a vape second. The larger size is also more beneficial to cafe owners as it would reduce the chance of people accidentally placing them in their bags or stealing them.

Pipe Dream vapes are also designed to be completely disassembled according to cradle 2 cradle design principles to make it easy to separate materials and parts for maintenance, upgrades and recycling.

Feedback from interviews we've had with regular argeileh smokers is that they would welcome a healthier alternative if it gave them the same experience (a thick smoke, the ability to use it as a medium to socialise, and a variety of flavours). For many, the environmental aspect is a bonus as long as what they are served is hygienic (the logic behind using single-use plastic pipes).

We also spoke to a few cafe owners and found that a solution that replaces coal was a big advantage due to accidents happening that cause injury to staff or customers and damage to furniture - not to mention it’s by far their most expensive recurring cost. They also mentioned ventilation as a problem (since most argeileh is smoked indoors) and under utilised space that is dominated by argeileh products.

When we shared the attached image with an admittedly small sample of cafes (3), they were hesitant until they discovered that the price would be almost half of their current monthly costs. They were all open to a trial run as they couldn’t guarantee that their customers would be willing to adopt it.

When sharing the image with potential consumers, younger argeileh smokers were far more interested if it gave them the same experience as a growing number of them use e-cigarettes as cigarette replacements and are also for the sustainability aspect. Older smokers were generally hesitant and said they would prefer to stick to the traditional pipes. You can’t win them all!

Since we are in the early stages of prototyping and developing, we do not currently serve anyone. In a year, we hope to be serving one to three cafes for three months while we refine the business model and logistics. 

By the fifth year, we hope to be serving at least 15% of the cafes in Jordan with a pilot program in Dubai.

We hope that within the first year, our proposal will spark a cultural debate over the massive environmental impact of argeileh smoking which has not yet been brought to public attention. We hope this will encourage more innovation in health mitigation of argeileh smoking as well novel ways to get rid of argeileh smoking waste.

We believe our solution has the ability to create a big dent in the industry to encourage sustainable practice but also to inspire others, as the first circular economy business model in the Middle East, to adopt a similar approach to other industries.

In 5 years, we sincerely hope there are copycat models in countries around the Arab World or that we can scale to a franchise model so that we can get rid of single use plastic pipes, coal and reduce the over cultivation of tobacco while making life better for second hand smokers around the region.

The main barrier is legal. Tobacco companies have been lobbying the Jordanian government to ban vapes and e-cigarettes for a while now and there is a high probability that they might succeed. 

Another barrier is cultural. Many Jordanians are averse to change and will be slow to adopt something that looks to replace one of the cultural hallmarks of Arab society.

To overcome the legal barrier, we may move our operations to Dubai where the market is much bigger, easier to enter due to business regulations and much more readily accepting of disruptive innovation. As a regional hub, it will also make it easier for us to expand into other countries.

In terms of the cultural barrier, we will look to market our service to younger argeileh smokers (18-29) as a better alternative to argeileh. They are more likely to try something new and cascade that effect to older smokers. 

Just one at the moment

Bassam Huneidi holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and and an MA/MSc from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in Innovation Design Engineering. His design practice is focused on food sustainability and the circular economy. He holds a certificate in 'Designing Cradle to Cradle Products for the Circular Economy' from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

Bassam has always been fascinated by the cutural phenomenon that is the argeileh; from owning an argeileh delivery business to presenting a university project that redesigned it as a meditative device and now looking to turn Pipe Dreams into a scalable project that can make real environmental and societal change.

1. When a cafe or restaurant are interested in subscribing to our service, we offer the option of buying any of their current argeilehs so that we can use the materials to manufacture more Pipe Dream vapes.

2. When they subscribe, they are given a Pipe Dream system which comprises of a certain number of vapes according to their needs as well as charging stations. The subscription cost will include weekly mouthpiece replenishments (which will be collected, deep cleaned and sent back out), monthly flavour replenishment and coil replacements (the latter of which will be remade into new coils). Finally, this will include training to their current staff to maintain and prepare the pipes.

Due to our ability to collect and reuse material, we are able to drop our costs below what they currently pay monthly for tobacco, coal, mouthpiece, aluminium foil and disposable pipe replenishments.

3. By providing an all-encompassing service and our product removing the lingering smoke (which heavily affects second hand smokers), coal (which causes injury and damage) and plastic pipes (space and environmental impact), we believe that consumers will drive up demand for more cafes to replace the traditional system with ours.

We will be looking for investment capital. Eventually our business model should allow us to be self-sufficient because even though we can under cut the recurring costs of a traditional argeileh and make it more affordable to the cafes and their customers, our margins are estimated to be higher.

Mainly exposure and networking so that we can find a suitable, circular economy minded manufacturer as well as investment in our idea and mentor us along the way.

We would use this money to refine our production plan since we are proposing a new way of producing vapes that is infinitely recyclable and make the first few production samples that we can use as a trial run.