Trash disappears when you toss it in the bin. Except it doesn’t. Some of it might get composted, some might get recycled, but most of it will end up in a double-tied plastic bag, tossed into the mouth of a sanitation truck, driven outside the city, regurgitated into a transfer station, then trucked, ferried, or trained to its final destination where it will get buried or burned. This is the reality in most big cities today, but one designer has a bold vision for how trash could be liquidated in the future.
Bob Hendrikx, an architect and biodesigner based in the Netherlands, has developed a concept for a “living bin” inspired by sea anemones. Though they look like colorful flowers, some species of anemones are omnivorous marine animals that feed on plants and other small animals like fish, crab, and plankton. According to Hendrikx, our trash cans could work in a similar way.
The concept was recently unveiled during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, where Hendrikx displayed a handblown glass prototype housing several Beadlet anemones. This type of anemone is known for eating almost anything it can catch, and crucially, it is found in the North Sea bordering the Netherlands. The proposal is highly experimental for now, but if science catches up, each region could tap into its own ecosystem to purge its own waste.
The living bin is the latest bio-inspired concept to come out of Hendrikx’s studio, which has produced a living coffin that uses mycelium mushrooms to help bodies decompose faster, and a living bench, which leverages the cleansing power of algae water to purify the air around it.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90804628/could-a-trash-eating-compost-bin-solve-our-organic-waste-problem
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