Time of Execution

2011 - Now

Status

Dropbucket Aps designs, manufactures and sells waste bins to established customers in the event industry. 

Design Team

Camilla Arndt Hansen, Jonathan Rasmussen, Marie Berggreen, Heiða Nolsøe, Mikkel Seibæk, Andreas Nørballe

Keywords

Field studies, socio-technial analysis, prototyping, sustainability, entrepreneurship

Dropbucket Official Website

Design Brief

The overall task was to develop simple, robust and easily handled solutions for the collection and disposal of trash in public spaces. How do you encourage people to correctly dispose of their trash with a solution that is both compatible with the working routines of the garbage collectors and financially sound for the municipality?

Since this was our very first project as aspiring design engineers at university, the project had a strong focus on user-centric analysis and creative design methods. Therefore, the brief required the design team itself to identify a specific problem area within the overall problematic around trash in public through interactions with actors in the real world. Our own research and experiences should then form the basis for the development of a concrete design solution.

Problem Research

We hit the streets of Copenhagen and started talking to citizens, garbage collectors, public cleaning personnel etc. "Follow the actors"/"Roll the snowball" was the primary methodology applied where dialogue with one actor would lead to the next. We took note of every opinion and behavioral patterns and observed what measures were already being applied to combat trash in the streets.

Through our field studies we identified three interesting focus areas. The learnings from this research would feed into a product specification with various requirements and criteria for the design of a trash solution that will find success in public spaces.

Conceptualization

After the identification of focus areas, we initiated a process of very open-minded brainstorm sessions. The premise was simple: no constraints and no idea would be too "ridiculous" to show. We just had to relate our ideas to some of the observed problems and be inspired from each others creativity.

While discussing our ideas, we soon realized that most of them would represent solutions that catered to a specific spacial and timewise context. This recognition led to the synthesis of three concept directions; Funnel Vision for pedestrian streets, Drop Bucket for events and Trash Tree for public parks.

Physical mock-ups were made for all three concepts. This hands-on work led to the discovery of new design challenges that would have to be considered during further development efforts in order to align with the product specification. Below are listed a few of our concerns.

Upon an evaluation of the challenges, we chose to go with the DropBucket concept as our solution for the public trash problem. It seemed that this solution could actually become reality within a short time frame, and it corresponded well with the finding that littering by young people at events during the weekend posed a significant part of the problem.

The basic concept is a waste bin that is made from a lightweight and flexible material (e.g. cardboard) which allows it to collapse totally flat and be transported in large quantities to the event site. The bin is deployed with a light flick to the top and it requires no sack as the entire bin is thrown out after use. The slanting surfaces makes is stable in windy conditions and makes highly visible space for advertisement by sponsors.

Engineering & Testing

With the basic concept described, we began a process of ideating, evaluating and settling on the details of the construction. We were mostly concerned about material selection as the balance between flexibility, strength and weather restance is crucial to the concept.

We finalized the project by delivering a small report and a fully functional prototype. We got great feedback from our supervisors, who also suggested that we should continue with the project. Therefore, we registered a company (DropBucket I/S) and made a successful prototype delivery to Roskilde Festival the following summer.

DropBucket Aps

Most of the team exited the company in 2013 except for Marie and Heida who run the company today. DropBucket Aps has since added several new product variants to the portfolio and the bins are sold to both national and international events through an online webshop. In 2015, the original design was awarded with the prestigious Red Dot Design Award - Best Of The Best.