Gamified trash disposal cleans up Dutch campus

Creative trashcans have been installed at Koning Willem I College to stop students from littering.

At Koning Willem I College in Den Bosch, The Netherlands, litter can be found all over campus. To address this, communications agency KesselsKramer launched a series of new trashcans to encourage students to throw away their trash properly. But instead of making the bins more accessible, the agency applied reverse psychology and created big obstacles for those wanting to use the bins.

One trash can is suspended above head level, mimicking a basketball hoop that users have to aim and shoot their litter into. Another sits on top of a stepladder, urging users to climb up before responsibly disposing their trash. Perhaps one of the most inaccessible bin is the one attached with weighted dumbbells, which takes the combined strength of four students to open.

In an interview with It’s Nice That, Agency co-founder Erik Kessel admits that he is not sure whether the campaign solved the problem, however it did get students thinking and talking about the wider issue. We already saw a London initiative turn cigarette butts and waste chewing gum into street art. How else can interactive campaigns encourage anti-litter behavior?