Sustainable Recycling Bin Project

Stainless steel is expensive...non-stainless rusts...

Maybe design it to be made of old dishwashers..they are stainless steel inside.

How about wood? Bamboo? or make it from those wretched water bottles.

Steel seems too high tech to me... I'd go for simple, low tech' made entirely of recycled/sustainable material.

Pedal action crusher could be cool.

Separate containers with a couple of wheels on each, make 'em so they can be linked together so they can all be dragged out together... this would also mean kids could play trains with 'em

OU ... does that mean you are in UK?

Del

Many thanks for your reply, yes OU in UK, actually in Cornwall. I know that stainless steel is expensive but can be recycled and also be made from recycled SS. All the other metals rust, and SS lasts so having a product that isn't causing too much impact on the environment in making and recycling.

I thought the removable containers could be made from a strong plastic, so easy to clean and recyclable materials too (PET) so yes those plastic bottles. I just need to try and source some standard units I think as retooling would be huge.

Do you know if you can source recycled steel?

Are you an engineer?

Best wishes and thanks

Kate

I'd try contacting sheet metal working companies...or are you thinking more rod/wire rather than sheet?

If you click on Del the Cat Here you will see my profile which tells you more about me that you'll ever need and links to some of the fun stuff I have made.(I'm an Electronics design enginer..but I'd define myself as....well look at the link and scroll down to find the fun stuff )

Del

Make sure you include holders for large labels/notices/instruction sheets detailing what can go in where: these should include (at the back of the holder) permanent instructions on how to design unambiguous labels/notices/instruction sheets.

Hi Didn't understand your e-mail, not sure if I was meant to mind, but thanks. This unit is for the home to keep all recycling together and to incorporate a crusher so neat and hopefully appeal to a bigger client base.

Kate

If you're doing a project on recycling you probably understand most of the issues around it. My problem is that the people making the rules keep changing them, and, never define them unambiguously. For example: the container at work where I'm supposed to put magazines, am I allowed to leave them in the plastic bags they were delivered in?

For a home facility, the three bins will presumably need to correlate with the local councils flavour of the month for recycling categories. There needs to be a holder (clear plastic wallet or something) where a list, hopefully supplied by the local council, can be displayed.

There could even be a special instructions area for things like "this month orange juice and milk cartons count as cardboard".

Sorry I'm trying not to go off on a rant: I'm sure you're getting the drift of where I'm coming from.

Hi Kate,

Nice little project. I was involved with our local municipallity many years ago and helped redesign their fleet of recycling trucks to increase payload and efficiencies in the early days of blue box programs. I also at this time, looked into enlisting the support of home builders to build and install cabinet work into the kitchen - as a standard feature - to house recycling containers.

I think you may miss the point if you focus on using recycled materials for this project. I believe the goal is to produce a device that people will have in their home, and will be easy and convenient to use. It has been my experience that folks in general are real fussy when it comes to the look of items used in or around the home. So the aestetics of the device is just as important as its function. It is really difficult to get good looking used or recycled materials that people will accept.

For your information, steel of any kind is probably the most recycled material in the world today, so, if I were you I would choose good looking, brand new satin stainless comfortable in the knowledge that it is already a fully recycled product and will for sure be melted down and reused again in future.

Try googling "stainless bins", and look for manufacturers and distributers of such products. If you get into serious volume and want to contain costs, try alibaba.com. They specialize in hooking up chinese manufacturers with customers world wide. You will not believe how cheap thing are to buy direct from China, however freight and volume could be a problem.

Good luck and here's to an "A" on your project.

Regards,

Jim...

Hi Jim

Thanks so much for all your comments, a great help too! I had to design 4 alternative ideas, which I made very recycled. My final idea is very much along the lines of what you were mentioning about look and quality.

I did a Met Matrix search (all new to me) and came up with stainless steel as all the low and medium carbon steels eroded and the impact on the environment was not so good. I feel that it needs to be a product that looks great in a cool chic flat to a rambling farmhouse, trying to encourage more people to recycle as we aren't doing that great. That was my first assignment. The satin stainless steel would be great as in my spec I said that it had to be knock and fingerprint free, that would certainly help. The inside removable containers would be a strong but not brittle plastic, again I searched the plastics and the best one was PET as it filled all the right criteria.

I got 60% in first assignment and was disappointed (mind hadn't studied for quite a while), 79% in second and watch this space on third. Thanks for the A, I did get 100% for project proposal. Funny as I am in a class of engineers and they called me a girly swot!. I guess you are an engineer too. Again thanks for all your help and for the next assignment I have to cost so will use the information you have given me.

Best Wishes

Kate

One of the issues to solve is the volume of materials collected and the storage of them, as an operational issue. One of the local councils (that shall be nameless.....) in the UK supplied virtually every household in an urban district with recycle boxes, wheelie-bins, etc., without reference to the fact that the district contained houses the front doors of which opened directly onto the street. Residents simply did not have sufficient space to store all the recyclables, boxes and wheelie-bins while awaiting the fortnightly collection service.....

In more rural districts, and Braintree is one of them, recyclables are collected in clear plastic bags that are to be placed at the boundary to the property on collection day only. There have been test cases in other areas alledging fly-tipping when these items are placed on other days, and Basildon has introduced fines in an attempt to stop this happening.

The moral of the story is, "look at the bigger picture". Nevertheless, it's an interesting project, and good luck with it. Please keep the CR4 readership informed of developments, as it will make interesting reading.

Many thanks for your comments which I've taken on board. My first project was on recycling and this opened up the doors of our council, Penwith in Cornwall, as we have a fortnightly collection of cans, bottles and paper. Again storage is a huge problem.

Plastic bottles and card can be taken to the village and things like car batteries and fabrics can go to other places which invlove a biggish journey which defeats the object. I interviewed a Councillor and an MP Andrew George and obtain the House of Commons papers on what the Government was doing. The Government think that they are doing ok, however nothing like countries like Holland, where it is law. The conclusion the Councillor and myself came to was that more awareness of recycling and the benefits were what is needed. Re-education, in other worlds as we are on self destruct! Also that highly populated areas like estates should have weekly collections, but also that we need to collect more things like batteries.

Will let you know how things progress but think that more awareness is the key!

Best wishes

Kate

Hey Kate,

I recycle in a place where ther is no recycling programs whatsoever so I'm probably a little more extreme than most. In the realm of sustainability you might consider a low tech bin that could be built by people who need jobs. Consider the embodied energy of the materials you use.

For instance, I have and am building my bins out of recycled pallets. A plant down the road just trashes them and they are a great sources of dimensional lumber. All of the dirty garbage is usually compostable and the rest can be given a quick rinse to keep the contain clean. I could see a large bin made out of this recycled wood with smaller wood bins that have been sealed with linseed oil or something for cleanliness.

hi, im oliver partridge and im 15 in england. i like this idea, but i cant say ive seen any of these bins with build in crushers and stuff around. but still, im going to add my couple of ideas to keep you going in the environmentally friendly direction;

first of all, i think that mini-crushers would sort the storage problem up to a point. anything is easier to store when its small in compact little squares! but i realise if its going to be mass produced a crusher isnt very conveniant, let alone safe for children etc. it would have to be high up or out of reach, maybe key activated. but theres another problem; power, which brings me to my second idea...

solar panels on the tops of the bins, and it comes with an adaptor cable and hooks so you could mount it on a wall, for example in flats the bins are sometimes kept underneath roofs that cover steps and walkways. you could just hang the solar panels on the walls/roof outside, have the cable brought down and make it easy to plug straight into the bin and charge it. if the bins are outside you can just have the solar panels slotted on top and plugged in directly. with solar panels you could add things like a fridge light inside for when you open the lid its dark, the unlikely crusher idea, maybe you could put a large battery on the back and it will act as a terminal for other things like lawnmowers and maybe even electric cars when the technology is more efficient.


please tell me if you like my ideas, i dont wan to leave my email adress on this public forum, but if you are enthusiastic enough you can go to youtube and contact me there.

here is my youtube channel; http://www.youtube.com/user/SoggyWetDog

here is a website where you can get more information about solar panels and possibly buy them; http://www.greenworks-energy.co.uk/