IRL Trashcan, the contactless email destroyer (2022) 2:00 (France)

Digital pollution causes around 4% of all global greenhouse effects and is still not a growing concern for the general public. Because they don't think about it. So how do you make the invisible visible? 
To make this issue visible and raise awareness about the growing impact of digital waste in our lives, Soixante Circuits reached out to BETC to develop IRL Trashcan: the first physical bin that immediately deletes all the emails from your trash.
 

Soixante Circuits, French design studio, has the mission of bridging the physical and digital worlds. Along with BETC, they have decided to tackle this issue head on its head by coming up with a simple and innovative solution: making digital waste physical.

To achieve this, Soixante Circuits and BETC used the digital tool that we use the most in our daily lives: the email. They created a physical bin named IRL Trashcan. Made for small and large businesses alike, this trashcan is actually a small computer, connected on the local WIFI network, that synchronises in real time hundreds of employees email accounts. Using the professional smartphone that every employee is equipped with, employees can hold their phone near the NFC sensor of the IRL Trashcan, which will immediately delete all the emails stored in their email trash.

IRL Trashcan is already in place within companies involved in the initial program and is available for their employees.

This innovative object was created to establish a new gesture, a new type of reflex. Just like the way that you remind yourself to throw your soda can in the recycling bin, you will get used to holding your phone near the IRL Trashcan to wipe off your deleted emails. 

To get companies from all over the world on board, Soixante Circuits and BETC have decided to make the device available to all. "We believe that it is by a commitment from the largest number of people possible that we will finally raise awareness around the issue of digital waste." say the inventors. The entire workflow is available for free on https://www.irltrashcan.soixantecircuits.fr/. 

Creative: Soixante Circuits and BETC