IQ TRASHCANS

TitleIQ TRASHCANS
BrandCHINA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FOUNDATION
Product / ServicePUBLIC SERVICE
CategoryB04. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
EntrantJ. WALTER THOMPSON Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation J. WALTER THOMPSON Shanghai, CHINA
Production A NEW LIFE FILMS Shanghai, CHINA
Production 2 BOTTLES POST PRODUCTION Shanghai, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Norman Tan J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Chief Creative Officer
SheungYan Lo J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Chairman, APAC Creative Council
George Shi J. Walter Thompson Shanghai General Manager
Selwyn Low J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Associate Creative Director
Gang Hu J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Executive Creative Director
Diana Li J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Senior Creative Director
Paul Yu J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Creative Director
Pippo Jiang J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Senior Art Director
Jiawei Lu J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Associate Art Director
Cindy Fan J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Associate Creative Director
Connie Chua J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Head of Production
If Lo J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Senior TV Producer
Jing Xu J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Senior TV Producer
Shuang Wu J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Account Manager
Nelson Cho / Director
Eli Wang J. Walter Thompson Shanghai Producer
Qing Hua / Editor
Connor Lee / Cameraman

The Campaign

No one stops to think about throwing the trash into the correct recycling bin. So much so, it has become a habit that society somehow accepts. After all, no one’s judging. But what if the trashcan could? Idea: If people don’t sort out the trash, the trash will sort them out. We redesigned standard recycling trashcans into an installation that classifies people into different IQ levels based on how well they separate the trash. By linking intelligence to the way one sorts the trash, we tapped into the pride of Chinese people to do the right thing – something that they always knew but never bothered to.

Creative Execution

All it took was a simple reskinning of the standard recycling bins. The installation was divided into 3 categories, each catering to people of different IQ groups as indicated by labels. Those who chose to sort the trash correctly technically declared their IQ to be of the highest level. Likewise, those who chose not to would have inadvertently declared themselves to have low IQ. We carried out this experiment at one of Shanghai’s busiest food street where there is a high volume of trash disposal such as food waste and paper wrappings. And we observed the crowd. Every single person stopped to carefully consider the correct bin to dispose his or her trash.

Results

In one day, 1534 people interacted with the IQ Trashcans. 89% of the people chose to sort their trash correctly. This goes to show that education was never the problem. It was their indifference to it. With one simple change to our recycling bins, we turned the problem into the medium that not only made a statement, but also proved that we can change people’s attitude towards recycling. By tapping into their pride, we awakened the public into doing the right thing for themselves, by themselves.

Our installation elicited an immediate and quantifiable response from the people who participated in our stunt. The entertaining, yet cheeky nature of the idea made people aware of their past indifference to the issue of waste sorting and recycling.

We redesigned standard recycling trashcans into an installation that classifies people into different IQ levels based on how well they separate the trash. Our target audience is the Chinese general public as waste sorting for recycling is an issue that concerns the young and old from all walks of life. Our approach is to place our target audience in the situation of waste sorting to let them interact with the issue face-on, rather than advertising or pushing one-way messages to them.