The Smart Bin

How can we help people get rid of face masks while respecting the environment and the garbage collectors’ safety?

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During my bachelor’s in Social innovation, Communication and New Technologies, as part of the interaction design course, we were asked to work on a project regarding environmental issues. The project required working on research, problem definition, ideation and prototyping.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of face masked were used everyday but couldn’t be recycled, representing a threat for the environment. The aim of the project was to design a way to collect face masks, to promote a safe handling of this waste and to possibly recycle the materials.

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The research phase of the project started by looking at how face masks were disposed at the time and if there was any possibility of recycling them. Successively, a questionnaire was distributed to 230 citizens to understand their habits and needs and to understand best practices. 97% of the interviewees affirmed they were worried about the environmental effect that face masks could have but only 12,9% was disposing of them correctly. Finally, 9 out of 10 participants said they would be willing to use a separate bin to collect face masks and some stated that some form of reward would encourage them to dispose correctly of the masks.

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For the ideation process, I first created 3 personas and 3 scenarios to better understand the users and and their use context. I then identified the functional and not-functional requirements and started ideating, reviewing the scenarios and prototyping using SketchUp.

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The design that was developed was a smart bin for the collection of face masks with the following characteristics:

• The bins will be placed next to the municipal bins for the collection of glass, paper and plastic.

• They will be equipped with optical proximity sensors to activate only when used and therefore reduce energy waste. When a user is detected, the bin will guide them vocally.

• They will have a flat surface on which to place the bags containing the masks. When the weight is detected, the doors will open causing the bags to fall into the bin. In this way, the bins will remain closed when they’re not being used, reducing the epidemiological risk.

• Once the bag has fallen, the surface will close again and a screen similar to that of slot machines will appear for the chance of winning a pack of 5 free masks. This will encourage people to use the bin.

• If it is successful, the masks will come out of a special slot.

• During the interaction, informative content regarding the environment and the disposal of the masks will appear on the screen.

• If the user leaves the bin before the "game" to win the masks ends, the proximity sensor will detect it and interrupt the interaction.

• When the operators open the bin to empty it, a disinfectant spray will be released inside to ensure the health of the operators.

The project presents 3 interface metaphors: the first is the proximity sensor and vocal guidance through as occurs in the most modern cigarette vending machines; when you get to the machine, in fact, it starts a guided interaction thanks to the proximity sensor and guides the user through all the steps that need to be performed. The second metaphor is that of slot machines to win free masks; on the screen there will be three rotating reels, if all three stop on the image of the mask the user wins the free package. The last metaphor is that of the detection of waste on the shelf which was inspired by some McDonald’s bins; in these bins, when the user has disposed of the waste, the compartment in which the waste is thrown detects it and rotates making it fall inside.

The type of interaction chosen for the project is that of response-based interaction. In fact, the system will guide the user both vocally and through text on the screen throughout the whole interaction.

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The design allows users to easily dispose of face masks in a way that protects the environment but also the health of garbage collectors. It also permits to collect all the face masks in one place so that the materials can be successively recycled.

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