Trash earth

A group project in a sustainability course during the MA in industrial design at Kolding Design School. After a week of research and surveys, my group decided to focus on how we can make people rethink their consumption and its consequences.

I came up with the concept of a trash bin that has a light in the middle of it that lights up in the evening where it reveals an earth map made out of patterns of endangered animal species; sea animals for the sea pattern and land animals + human (being the cause of disbalancing the ecosystem) for the land pattern.

Daytime experience:
During daytime the bin reflects its surroundings, making the experience of throwing trash feeling like throwing it on the ground, where it eventually ends up anyway, just in another place than in front of you. On the top, smokers can put out their cigarettes on a silhouette of the earth before throwing them away, possibly making them come to think how toxic it is for the environment, and themselves.

Nighttime experience:
As trash starts to collect, the silhouette of the bin fills up the earth, trashing up the earth and taking up the light at the same time.

I made the pattern and if you like the sea animal one, it is possible to buy it in the shop on various clothing items here.

Visualizations by me as well.