SF’s Department of Public Works and Institute for Creative Integration Designed a Better Trash Can – COOL HUNTING®

An oftentimes overlooked design, the humble public trash can is a crucial object and San Francisco’s Department of Public Works has been on a search to replace their 3,000 sidewalk receptacles with newer, better ones. The institution’s deputy director of policy and communications, Beth Rubenstein, couldn’t find the perfect trash can so she teamed up with industrial design company Institute for Creative Integration to create three new prototypes. “They balance ease of use, ease of unloading, durability of locks and hinges, and an integrated system for automatically detecting when they’re getting full”—and 15 of them have just begun a 60-day field test. Hopefully they will be better for the public to use and for the Department of Sanitation to handle. “We have to have them fully functional,” Rubenstein says. “But they also have to be a visual asset on the street.” Read more at Fast Company.

Image courtesy of SFDPW