Gongol.com Archives: August 2024

August 25, 2024

In 1965, the government of Manitoba decided to lean into the Space Age theme by stationing spherical, Sputnik-like trash cans along highways around the province. It was a clever idea fed by a whole program of highway signs and other promotion. ■ Something as humble as a trash can may not seem worthy of extra design attention -- but that's only because we take the idea of trash disposal too easily for granted. We shouldn't do that. ■ Civilization depends on a whole mesh of effective modern sanitation programs, for conventional solid waste, recycling, composting, and hazardous wastes, as well as sanitary sewage, storm sewage, non-point-source water pollution, and all forms of air pollution. Fail to deliver any one of those, and the quality of life suffers. Drop the ball on some of them and things start to fall apart instantly. ■ A little bit of human-friendly design can help to keep these infrastructure services -- the backbone of modern living -- in the forefront of public attention. It doesn't have to happen all the time, but relegating these services to the shadows is an unforced mistake. ■ In places where resources are constrained, clever ideas pop up easily; that's why land-scarce Amsterdam has a clean and appealing system of underground trash collection. But even in places with lots of space (like Manitoba), the public deserves clever, well-designed contributions to their infrastructure. ■ People deserve to be excited (or at least delighted) by the ordinary, and clever ideas like the Orbit shouldn't belong only to the past. Curiosity gets us to do useful things, like putting trash in its place. It's a resource worth cultivating.