One Bin, All In: Recycling Design
Designing for Social and Environmental Change
Client: Indiana University/Purdue University
Approach:
Our team approached this project with the initial goal of redesigning the current bins to support the change from a multi-stream system to a single-stream system and to make it more convenient for people to recycle than to use the trash bins.
We performed extensive user and stakeholder research and looked to what was currently working at other campuses as well as what was feasible in the near future. After understanding the context a bit more, this project became more than an attempt to create new bins, it became the driver of a much larger initiative to create a culture of recycling on campus and beyond.
Solution:
The existing recycling bins disappeared into the background so we proposed placing bins in high traffic areas and designed them vertically to provide a large area for our newly designed graphics, making them visible from far away. These graphics were platforms for campaign messaging which, communicated the benefits of recycling and was geared toward a college-age audience. We also created the slogan, “One Bin, All In” to be etched on to all bins to communicate the change to the new system.
Our final system includes redesigned interior bins, updated graphics and campaign for interior and exterior bins, a proposal for an exterior roll-off with drive-up capabilities, and a central interior recycling center which provides education, information and opportunities for incentives and other programming activities and promotions.
The images below are several I created as part of a final proposal. I also included images of the bin prototype we had made.
