Waste sorting in public places

Dublin Airport has got a new bin system.

There are three sections:

• Paper and cardboard
• Plastic and cans (includes plastic bags!)
• General Waste

Colour

Each section is a different colour.

• Blue for paper and cardboard (I think of blue for water, ie liquid, ie drinking, ie bottles)
• Green for plastic and cans (Green in my mind does not equal plastic or cans! Green is trees...!)
• Black for general waste (Yes, I think this colour makes sense).

In Ireland, our recycling wheelie bins come in a multitude of colours: orange, black, green, blue, brown. I think our heads are geared to black for general waste; brown for composting; green for recycling.

 I'd like to think that such colours are innately understood but we're not there yet.

Shape

The holes for each section are shaped differently

• Rectangular for paper/cardboard (I think this is logical)

• Circular for plastic and cans (circular is the obvious shape for bottles and can and drinking vessels, however this bin takes all kinds of plastic - bags etc)

• Square for general waste

The largest shaped opening is for general waste and I think this makes sense. However, although I think black is a good choice of colour for general waste, this opening is not the most appealing or "go-to". I think the idea of shapes is excellent, however this solution is not quite there yet.

Size

All the bins are the same size; I wonder if they could be narrower or smaller or different heights?

Design: a lot done, more to do

I am impressed but this is a protoype in my opinion.There are good design ideas but it's not quite there yet. I love that it is bilingual and I like the non-language-specific icons.