RECOLOGY | Better At The Bin Art Truck
Working with Recology’s Artist In Residence Program, we devised an art project for students to create a mobile call to action for all SF residents to be better recyclers. We gave SF mural artist Sirron Norris along with a group of young students a brand new Recology recycling truck and let them have at it. The result is an awesome ‘Better At The Bin Art Truck’ that drives the city emptying residents blue bins and visiting schools to educate and inspire the generation to defeat this growing trash problem we are faced with.
THE NARRATIVE — LAUNCHING BINERGY
Recycling messaging had become a little too gloom and doom. So instead of reminding young people how bad the problem was, we created something they could get excited about—and invited them to join in.
We discovered that young San Franciscans were already powerful advocates for recycling and composting at home, often encouraging their parents to do better. We turned that influence into a citywide youth movement and gave it a name:
BINERGY.
WHAT IS BINERGY?
BINERGY is green energy created every time you use the right bin.
Food scraps go into the green compost bin. Bottles, cans and paper go into the blue recycling bin. Waste stays out of landfill. Resources get another life.
Every toss creates a little more BINERGY—and when an entire city gets Better At The Bin, all that BINERGY adds up to something powerful: helping save the environment.
HOW WE DID IT
Let the kids build the world.
Working with Recology’s Artist in Residence Program, we brought together San Francisco mural artist Sirron Norris and a group of young students. Sirron helped transform their ideas and drawings into a cast of animated characters living in a colorful parallel world built around reducing, reusing, recycling and composting. Instead of another environmental lecture, we created a world kids would want to enter—and share.
JOIN THE BINERGY FORCE
We turned the campaign into a recruitment drive, calling on San Francisco kids to Join the BINERGY Force.
Working with Recology’s Artist in Residence Program, mural artist Sirron Norris helped a group of young San Franciscans imagine a parallel animated world powered by BINERGY. Their ideas became a colorful cast of characters showing people how to compost, recycle, reduce and reuse—without the lectures.
THE BINERGY TRUCK
Then we put BINERGY on the road.
The kids and Sirron transformed a brand-new Recology recycling truck into a rolling piece of public art populated by their animated world. We launched the program on Earth Day, unveiling the BINERGY Truck at a press conference at San Francisco City Hall.
From there, it went to work—emptying blue bins throughout the city while spreading the BINERGY message everywhere it traveled.
SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAM
Bring the world back to where it started.
The truck became the centerpiece of a school education program, with its characters extending into posters, coloring and activity books, classroom materials and school visits. Rather than scare kids about the future, the program gave them simple things they could do to make it better—and something fun to bring home to their families. Educate the kids. Inspire the parents. Be better at the bin.
iPAD GAME
Bring the world back to where it started.
The truck became the centerpiece of a school education program, with its characters extending into posters, coloring and activity books, classroom materials and school visits. Rather than scare kids about the future, the program gave them simple things they could do to make it better—and something fun to bring home to their families. Educate the kids. Inspire the parents. Be better at the bin.
