Adelaide City Council approached Spark about designing a new waste bin system for the Rundle Mall precinct. The goal was to encourage pedestrians in the mall to discard their waste into one of three bins – green for compostable waste, yellow for recyclables and red for general waste.

SPARK presented several concepts for the trio of bins to the Government of South Australia and Green Industries SA. Each concept was devised to attract pedestrians with an eye-catching presence and innovative design, with the end goal of turning waste separation into established behaviour.

Additionally, council wanted a sleek, minimal look for the bin trio, uninterrupted by a visible locking mechanism. After trialling different locking system concepts, Spark industrial designers developed a unique, keyless, and tamper-proof locking system that is inaccessible from the exterior of each bin.

With colourful, bold, instructional signage, passersby can quickly decipher which bin to place their waste into, thereby reducing manual seperation at waste processing facilities.