Soixante Circuits and BETC introduce the IRL Trashcan, a physical trash can that questions the impact of the digital world.
For several years now, society has been striving to become more environmentally conscious. Mentalities are shifting, responding to the threat of ecological disaster. Yet, many still don’t fully grasp the harms of digital pollution. To make this invisible danger visible and to question the impact of digital technology in our lives, Soixante Circuits teamed up with the agency BETC to launch the IRL Trashcan: a new type of trash can that instantly deletes all emails in the trash folder.
Digital pollution is a real threat, responsible for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet it's still not widely understood by the general public.
This lack of awareness, this indifference, stems from one main issue: digital pollution is invisible. As a result, a common human bias occurs—we don’t realize the impact of what we cannot see.
Soixante Circuits, a Parisian design studio whose mission is to connect the physical and digital worlds, and BETC decided to tackle this issue with an innovative and straightforward approach: make digital pollution physical & visible.
To achieve this, Soixante Circuits and BETC turned to the most common digital object in our daily lives: the email. They designed a physical trash can called the IRL Trashcan. Created for businesses both large and small, this trash can is actually a Wi-Fi-connected micro-computer that syncs employees' email accounts in real time. Using their work phone equipped with an electronic badge, employees can simply tap the phone on the IRL Trashcan’s NFC sensor, which will instantly delete all the emails in their trash folder.
The IRL Trashcan is already operational at participating companies and accessible to their employees.
This one-of-a-kind device was designed to create a new habit, a new reflex. Just as you would toss your soda can in the recycling bin and your banana peel in the trash, you can now tap your phone on the IRL Trashcan to clean out your inbox with a simple gesture.
Because invisible doesn’t mean it’s without impact.
With this innovation, Soixante Circuits and BETC hope to raise awareness of digital carbon footprints.
To encourage global participation, Soixante Circuits and BETC have made the trash can's operational process accessible to everyone. "We believe that through mass engagement, more people will become conscious of the issue of digital pollution," say the designers. The workflow is available for free at irltrashcan.soixantecircuits.fr.
Today, everyone has thousands of deleted emails stored in their trash folders. The full impact of this is still hard to measure due to a lack of data from major tech companies. However, the impact is undeniable, and the public needs to be aware. The IRL Trashcan serves as a tool for awareness, part of a broader movement to raise consciousness. While the IRL Trashcan alone won’t solve the problem of digital pollution, it aims to spark discussion.
It’s a small step for the planet, but a giant leap in raising awareness about the importance of digital pollution.
