New York City’s Trash Cans of Tomorrow
After a summer of heavy testing, Brooklyn’s Group Project wins the BetterBin international design competition with its more ergonomic litter basket.
The winning litter baskets from Brooklyn’s Group Project.
Source: Group ProjectNew York is set to replace more than 23,000 of its public litter baskets with a new design by a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company called Group Project. The new bins, one for recycling and the other for waste, will have a lid bisected by a bar and feature a removable plastic sheath that weighs just 10 pounds, which sanitation workers can carry to trash trucks; the city’s current cans, in contrast, weigh more than 30 pounds, and that’s with no trash inside. The bar across the middle functions not just as a hinge for the lid but also prevents the dumping of oversized household waste in the bins.
The design was selected through a year and a half-long competition sponsored by the New York City Sanitation Department and advised by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Industrial Designers Society of America, and the Van Alen Institute, a design nonprofit.