For sure the New York Junior League, who does seriously great work sprucing up Marcus Garvey Park, meant well when they sponsored Bigbelly garbage cans in the park, a four-block square oasis in Harlem. I disliked the big boxy cans instantly for their overbearing presence and distracting colors and signage that is so out of harmony with the setting.

 

Little did I know how far Bigbelly’s bad design would extend. Were it functional, I would bear with its ugliness (ugly alone is not a candidate for the Annals of Bad Design, since it is a matter of taste). As I would discover over several months of daily walks in the park, the Bigbelly’s “smart usb, solar-powered waste & recycling system” was profoundly flawed as a garbage receptacle.

Every time I passed a Bigbelly, it was overflowing with garbage.

 

…

…To put garbage into it, you have to open a shoot door on its front.

When I opened the door, one reason for the overflow became clear: the opening isn’t large enough for much of the garbage people throw in it. And who would want to put their arm in to its filthy opening to push garbage in?

The most astonishing design strangeness became apparent when I noticed the front panel was ajar on a dented Bigbelly I came across one day…

So I opened it. It turns out the reason the Bigbelly is so often overflowing, is that it has hardly any room for actual garbage. That’s because its supposed to automatically compact the garbage.

According to Bigbelly’s website, When the public deposit waste in the rubbish or waste recycling unit, a sensor measures capacity and a compactor presses it all down. This allows the unit to swallow up to eight times more waste than a standard street bin before it fills up. The unit then sends an email notification to say how full it is and when it will be ready to be emptied.

Clearly, the Bigbelly system isn’t working in Marcus Garvey Park. If its sensors and compactors and automatic pick up don’t work, then effectively its like putting a home garbage can in the park.

It seems that Bigbelly is really designed to be a multi-receptacle recycling system that is emptied often.

The old fashioned garbage cans nearby put Bigbelly to shame:

They have a big opening at the top that you can just drop your garbage into…

…they hold a lot and its easy to see when they need emptying…

…and they have an unobtrusive presence amidst the beauty and activity of the park…

…a simple design approach that works…