New York City’s Trash Cans of Tomorrow

(Bloomberg) -- New 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. 

“I think all of us had pretty similar concerns,” says Clare Miflin, co-chair of AIA New York's committee on the environment. “The new bins should make containment of the litter better, stop people from dumping household waste, increase recycling, and make [the bins] ergonomic for city workers.”

Last but not least, she says, the bins needed to “fit in with the design of city streets.” The city's green, wire mesh baskets have been a ubiquitous sight since they were designed in the 1930s.

The BetterBin competition drew over 200 international entrants, and in early 2019, two finalists were chosen. One entry was by Smart Design, the international design firm that redesigned the New York taxi; the other was by Group Project. Each company was awarded $40,000 to build 12 prototypes, which were then put into use at busy intersections in summer 2019. The winner was determined by a jury, based on how the prototypes stood up during testing, public comments, and feedback the Sanitation Department received during the same testing period, including from its employees.

Each can was supposed to cost a maximum of $175 when fabricated in bulk. They need to have a lifespan of about three years, which would entail being tipped into the back of a truck nearly 2,650 times. (The cost was allowed to rise above $175 if the can were designed to outlast longer its ordained service cycle.)

Group Project's Brit Kleinman and her four colleagues learned that they'd won only last week, when she received an email and then a congratulatory phone call. Given that the team had entered the competition while still committed to their day jobs—“we've been working on this as an intensive side project,” Kleinman explains— she was thrilled to hear they'd won.

“Just to be able to impact New York City in that way is a pretty unique feeling,” Kleinman says. “To have something that millions of people interact with, which becomes part of the fabric of the city, is pretty rare.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net

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