In Flanders just as in the rest of the world illegal dumping and litter are an issue, certainly in big cities. In the context of tackling illegal dumping and litter further in de city of Antwerp, we wanted to encourage people to use public paper baskets/bins more. Nowadays, these paper baskets/bins are fully integrated into the streetscape and through this, they aren’t always visible. The briefing was to focus on these issues through communication on or via the paper baskets/bins to make people aware again of using the bins instead of dropping their trash in the streets.

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 mould 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 colours 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.