In order to get people’s attention and to open their eyes to denote the issue of urban litter we made singing bins, which we called the Trash Tunes. The idea all started with the form of the bins. When you look at the bins in the City of Antwerp you can identify the form of a jukebox. That’s why we had the idea to turn the trash bins into real jukeboxes and to motivate people to throw their trash in the paper baskets/bins by giving them something in return, namely a part of a well-known song. We made deals with different labels. Every time someone throws something in the bin, they got thanked by the bin singing “give it to me, Baby”, “you’re simply the best” or “drop it like it’s hot”. We succeeded in making something ordinary, throwing away trash, into an extraordinary experience.

Every jukebox consists out of 2 plastic shells. To produce the shells, a special mold was made based on the exact forms of the trash bin. The design of the jukebox was based on the authentic Wurlitzer jukebox with remarkable colors as red, yellow, orange, green and blue. In the middle of the shelf, the “A” logo of the City of Antwerp was integrated. Inside the trash bin we provided a sensor to detect every move. As soon as the trash passes the sensor, the music starts. As a real jukebox, we also integrated light streaks underneath the cover, that light up when the music starts to play. So even at night the jukeboxes are a success. Furthermore, we made a movie of passengers who used the bins and danced on the trash tunes, and spread it online.

In total, over 100 jukeboxes were placed in the city center and also in litter-plagued districts. Not only did people notice the bins more in the streets, the urban litter dropped by 65%, which is spectacular. Also on social media the bins didn’t go unnoticed. The social movie was only spread in Belgium and had more than 240.000 views on Facebook. The Trash Tunes were mentioned in every Belgian newspaper and were a news item on the main national TV channels.