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Rotterdam's organic waste container
In collaboration with the City of Rotterdam we designed an enclosure for an organic waste mini-container (‘Kliko’).This enclosure allows people who live in apartment buildings or city centers, and don’t have their own ‘green’ container (food and garden waste), to easily dispose their food waste. Utilizing a standard 'Kliko' as a foundation enables waste collection through existing waste trucks. If the organic waste collected is free of pollution it can be turned into high quality compost. When finished there will be more than 2000 enclosures placed throughout Rotterdam.
The overall challenge was to create a robust and user-friendly disposal column that integrates in Rotterdam's urban landscape and collects high-quality waste for re-use.
User-friendly for both residents and collectors
Accessible for disabled persons and elderly
Hands-on approach for the tender process
Design goals
An important goal was to create an enclosure that is user-friendly for both residents and garbage collectors. For wheelchair users and the elderly, the height of the throw-in opening and use force are critical. Additionally, the product needed to prioritize safety and cleanliness. For collectors, the enclosure had to offer quick and easy access, with minimal force required to extract the mini-container.
For the municipality ease of placement was critical. The enclosure and its concrete base could only be slightly recessed in the ground due to cable and pipe considerations. Also the quality of the waste collected is very important, as contaminated GFE cannot be efficiently turned into compost.
Innovative solution
The ‘find’ in this project was to slightly recess the mini-container into the ground and angle it towards the user. In this way the throw-in height could be reduced significantly while still using the standard mini-container. Recessing the mini-container was carefully balanced with the use force for the collector, which is specified by the ARBO norm, and critical pipe and cables zones in the ground.
Quality of use
To further increase the quality of use the lid is weight balanced with dampened movement to realise a low force and slow and safe lid behaviour. The lid moves upward when opening so a ‘dripping’ bag does not dirty the handle.
To increase the quality of the organic waste the throw-in opening was designed in such a way that it perfectly matches the size of the standard 5 litre degradable GFE bags, but not the larger bags that are generally used for other types of waste.
Dedicated partner
Spark played an important role as a dedicated partner to the City of Rotterdam. Beyond product design, we provided prototypes, design validation and documentation for the tender process. Throughout the tender and implementation phases, we offered hands-on support to both the municipality and the supplier, ensuring the development of a production-ready enclosure aligned with its intended purpose.
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