EuroScan: Littershark Prowls European Cities

EuroScan, my monthly column for the innovation&Design section of BusinessWeek Online, is published today. It discusses how good design is applicable also to mundane objects such as public trashbins. Here it is:

I never anticipated that I would write a column about a trash bin. But then, few trash bins are quite so innovative. The littershark, as it is known, costs 1,500 Swiss francs apiece ($1,200), is the result of serious research into materials and security, and is one of the best-designed pieces of urban furniture seen in cities around the world.

Moreover, it is proof that even an apparently mundane object like a public litter container carries hidden complexity—and that good design, albeit expensive, can make a difference in keeping urban streets clean and safe.

The trash bin is produced by Brüco, the small Swiss-German firm that won the 2002 international competition organized by the mayor of Zurich to renew the city's urban furniture. Its shape, which came out of the pencil of designer Werner Zemp, is reminiscent of a shark (hence, the nickname) in an upward movement: a brushed stainless-steel cylinder with a sloping cover, featuring a long but narrow hole with a "middle tooth" to prevent large trash bags or other big items from being deposited inside (see picture: the trash bin installed at a tram stop in downtown Zurich).

Since 2002, it has been bought and installed by the thousands in cities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Paris and Dubai may be next.

The bin comes in many variations and sizes, for indoor and outdoor use, but most of the features are common, and the genius is in the details. The stainless steel is specially treated so that graffiti and stickers can be easily removed, and, indeed, walking around Zurich or the campus of the University of Lausanne (another Brüco customer), one cannot help but notice tagged walls and street signs in the vicinity of spotless littersharks. Sturdy, the bins can't be easily removed or overturned. Closed, they won't spill or leak. Bigger than most ordinary trash cans, they gobble more garbage. A large swivel door in the front makes it easier for waste collectors to do their jobs. Moreover, the size of the hole is such that birds can't dig in the trash—and the stainless steel makes it impossible for rats to climb inside. Finally, the littershark is designed to prevent fires, either intentional (vandals) or negligent (cigarettes): The single narrow hole would cause the flames to be choked by their own smoke.

Honestly, I had no idea that there were so many functional issues surrounding the design of trash bins. And then there are the security concerns.

The relation between urban trash bins and security is complicated. Bins have often been used by terrorists, in various parts of the world, as a drop-off point for explosives. They are generally located in places where people gather, and the casual gesture of throwing something into a trash bin—an object wrapped in an old newspaper, for instance—raises no eyebrows. The common response by law enforcement agencies in Paris, in the London subway, in parts of New York, and elsewhere has been to remove the trash bins altogether.

So if you walk down the Champs-Elysées, the elegant boulevard in Paris, on a typical summer Sunday filled with tourists, you are likely to see piles of garbage — soda cans and bottles, Styrofoam boxes, papers, half-eaten sandwiches, etc. — adorning the foot of lampposts and trees. Because while most litter bins have been removed from the avenue in the name of security, fast-food restaurants and ice cream parlors have not. And once you've had your cheeseburger, what do you do with the box and napkins?

Which is why the city of Paris is considering buying Brüco's top-of-the-line trash bin, the "Protectus," and installing it along the Champs-Elysées. This is a specially reinforced model, made of a thicker steel and provided with a bulletproof transparent window in the front for quick visual inspection of the contents.

It has been designed to "contain" explosions. Tests monitored by defense experts at Armasuisse, the tech lab of the Swiss Army, have shown that the impact of the explosion is channeled upward rather than sideways. People within 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6 feet) of the bin may be affected, but everyone else should be safe.

The Préfecture, Paris' police department, is running its own tests: If they're conclusive, next summer the fashionable Champs-Elysées may feature a number of designer trash bins—and fewer mounds of garbage.