Attractive recycling station made of recyclable glass

The station is made from 5mm-thick textured glass sheets, that are themselves made from recycled glass

Spotted: Two Taiwanese designers have come up with a novel design for a glass recycling station – a station made of glass that can itself be recycled. The designers, Jack Lee and Trinna Wu created the Guangjing glass recycling station as a way to encourage people to recycle more, by designing the recycling station to act as an attractive feature of the space. 

The station is made from 5mm-thick textured glass sheets, that are themselves made from recycled glass. The frame is made of thin iron plates, hollow tubes, and thin steel bars to keep the weight down. The glass sheets create a light and airy look and provide an intriguing visual contrast to the colours of the bottles inside.  

Users push bottles through an opening that automatically closes when not in use, to keep any odours from escaping. At the bottom is a channel to divert any drops, from bottles that were not quite empty, into a water box that can easily be emptied. As an added bonus, the top has a solar panel that provides enough energy to light the station at night. It also has a foldable top panel to allow it to double up as a standing table in bars and other venues.  

The designer’s intention was not only to create a useful recycling bin but to create something that would work as art as well. According to Lee, the pair used, “the collective behaviour of recycled glass to create a new and beautiful scene … The [station] is interactive, beautiful and functional, and can be used as an educational public art installation for urban streetscapes.” 

It is well-known that the easier it is to recycle, the more people will recycle. The Guangjing glass recycling project has also hit on another aspect of recycling – that the more attractive the bin is, the more likely people are to use it. At Springwise, we have seen aesthetic considerations increasingly entering into recycling with innovations such as a home waste bin that automatically sorts items for recycling and a rubbish bin that uses heat to reduce the volume of waste. 

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