The BinCam is a new device created by students from New Castle, England, designed to shame people into recycling. On the lid of the trashcan is an Xperia X10 that snaps a photo of every piece of trash you throw away. The photos are then uploaded to a Facebook app where you can compare the trash you've thrown away to the stuff your friends have thrown away.
The idea behind the BinCam is to make recycling social. Sharing everything you throw away with your friends could get embarrassing, but it will also help you be better with your recycling, as nothing is more motivating than online shame. Check out the video here to see a brief demonstration and description of the BinCam.
Social Recycling Bins
The BinCam Shares What You Throw Away With the World
Trend Themes
1. Social Recycling - The trend towards using technology to make recycling more social and incentivize people to be more responsible with waste management provides opportunities for businesses to create innovative solutions that help people accomplish their recycling goals while also satisfying their social needs.
2. Waste Tracking - Waste tracking technology like the BinCam provides opportunities for businesses to develop real-time monitoring solutions that can help individuals and organizations track their waste production and implement more sustainable practices over time.
3. Gamification of Recycling - The BinCam and other similar recycling incentives and applications that leverage gaming mechanics can create opportunities for businesses to create game-like systems that encourage and reward users for recycling, reducing wasteful habits, and adopting sustainable behaviors.
Industry Implications
1. Waste Management - The waste management industry has the opportunity to leverage technologies like the BinCam to monitor and manage waste production in real-time, as well as to develop innovative solutions that incentivize individual and organizational waste reduction.
2. Technology - The technology industry can play a critical role in creating innovative solutions for waste management such as waste tracking and recycling gamification tools that leverage smartphones, IoT and social media application technologies.
3. Social Media - Social media platforms can develop innovative solutions like the BinCam Facebook app to make recycling and waste management more social and gamified, thereby reinforcing good recycling habits, and reducing waste production.