Bigbelly Solar compactors are waste cans designed to minimize grounds cleaning staff for public places in easily deployable, compact, and sustainable package. Their website can be found here. The theme is open source, and you can use it for any purpose, personal or commercial.
The compactor is primarily designed to be as simple as possible for grounds cleaning staff. The major design features that accomplish this are as follows:
⚪ Solar power to reduce power infrastructure
⚪ Capacity sensor activates locking handle to prevent overflowing
⚪ Connected to webapp for efficiently emptying filled cans
⚪ Integrated waste compactor to reduce footprint while increasing capacity
⚪ Easily exchangable interior bin
⚪ Curved top to prevent overflow trash being placed on top blocking solar cell
All of these features are design are geared at the intended buyer of trash cans rather than pedestrians using them, so for my analysis I focused on the pedestrian-Bigbelly interaction. On initial inspection they offer few if any affordances to pedestrian users.
After watching 124 people use Bigbelly units near the MIT Student center and talking to a few users, there were a few easy conclusions to make.
After playing with the mechanism for a few minutes, I identified three potential reasons for this design
⚪ It prevents users from sticking their hands in the moving parts of the compactor
⚪ It limits the max size of compacted objects to prevent jamming
⚪ It prevents the user by inserting more waste by locking closed when detected full or no power.
The three areas that where the Bigbelly compactors failed compared to a standard trashcan and could serve to be improved could both be resolved with an overhauled UI.
The first area in need of improvement is the time to dispose in both standard two-handed operation and limited single-handed operation.
There are a number of design requirements I would like to impose on this new design.
⚪ Hands-free operation
⚪ Recuded cycle time on par with standard slotted trash cans
Along with a few carryovers from the previous system.
⚪ Prevents users from inserting hands into compactor
⚪ Limits max trash size
The second design failure is that the device state should be much more evident.
In order to fix this
⚪ The user must not be able to interact with the device while unusable
⚪ The state must be indicated more obviously than a single LED.
Finally, it would be incredibly useful if the compactor would be easier to clean.
In order to adress these problems I would reccommend a solution that includes the following
⚪ A redesigned disposal chute that would be default open, only closing to cycle trash to the main compartment, when full, or during power-down.
⚪ A closed state featuring a fully recessed and useless handle, prohibiting the user from inserting trash or trying to open it
⚪ Another locked latch to remove the top plastic component for easier cleaning
⚪ A drain port at the bottom of the front face allowing for easy scrubbing and rinsing of the new disposal chute and allowing rainwater to egress the always-open chute.
These ideas are detailed in the below sketch: