Being the Bin Fairy

It's only week 2 of the MeCycle pre-launch pilot and it feels like a lifetime ago (in a really good way) that the app hit the app store.

The MeCycle app is the heartbeat of the MeCycle experience but the app is nothing without the MeCycle bin (like peanut butter without the jelly).

As we've been dropping off more and more pilot bins as the bin fairy, we are getting so crazy excited to design our post pilot bin.

Believe it or not, we are thinking very, very carefully about the MeCycle bin. We want it to be delightful. That's right, once more for the back row - we want our recycling bin to be delightful. And for us, that means a ton of things.

• The bin has to be smart. It has to know when it is full and trigger a contactless pick up. Good news, we've already figured that out.

• It has to be clean. Squeaky clean. And that means if it gets dirty, it has to be easy to clean. Mr. Clean type clean.

• It has to be made from recycled plastic. Although our beta testers have a cardboard bin (for now), we think we have found the perfect recycled plastic bin for when we exit our pilot.

• It has to be clear that it is not for "regular" recycling (and certainly not for garbage). As MeCycle, we love recycling of course, but we only love recycling that actually gets recycled. Sadly, 71% of plastic bottles and 54% of aluminum cans end up in landfill and oceans. We're not sure how many of those passed through a recycling bin, but we are sure that many of them made that trip. So no, we don't want you to get confused and put MeCyclable things in "regular" recycling. Our bin has to be distinct.

• It has to show you what your recycling can become. What?! We read all the things about how to drive recycling behavior and we came across this super cool study that showed when people know what their recycling can become, they will recycle more. So we say - "on it". Working on those designs now.

• And strong bonus points - we think our bin manufacturing partner is one that employs disabled talent. We are so excited about that.

What has been so fun this week was dropping off bins, thinking about bins and sketching our dream bin designs. So here's a picture of Mark - with our MeCycle Apartment sized trial bins. Our MeCycle Home bins are in the works. Get ready bin fairy.