Design should help us dispose wisely of our waste

Keep Denmark Clean, Danish Design Centre as well as the design office Good Morning Technology (GMTN) are behind a project that focuses on waste on the roads – i.e. the waste that we dump on motorway service areas and through the car window when we drive on the roads. The intention of the project is to show how design can solve some of the big waste challenges that we face - as well as to help people change behaviour by means of functional, immediately understandable and aesthetically attractive solutions.

The solution of GMTN has four directions: inside the car, at the motorway service areas, communication through a positive campaign and a service system that rewards those who do not pollute.

Ashtray for the cup holder in the car

The motorway service area: a trash lane, which is a marked-up lane that is illuminated in the dark that the drivers pass on the way out from the motorway service area. A giant funnel that is easy to aim at with your garbage tells you a kind ‘thank you’, swallows the garbage and shoots it to an underground container that will be emptied when needed.

Ashtrays will be placed on parking lots, where people smoke. The ashtrays will come in different colours, but in terms of shape they will be related to the trash lane funnel, and they will have photovoltaics that will make it possible to find them in the dark.

Inside the car: Ashtrays to be placed in the cup holder. The ashtrays can be operated with one hand by pressing on the sides, and they will be self-closing, which prevents the content from smelling. Waste bag and container that also can be operated with one hand. They are also self-closing.

Trash lane

Service system: a system enabling drivers to dispose of their waste and earn points that can be exchanged into coffee or gas, for example. The waste is collected, transported and sold at a calcination company that transforms it into energy.

Campaign: ‘Tidy Man’ with a Superman cape. Humorous campaign at citizen level. Tidy Man can tie all elements together with stickers on waste baskets, gas stations, motorway service areas, cars and so forth.