Hasta La Gadget!

Claptrap is kind of annoying. Cute, but annoying. The robot from Borderlands has a grating voice, he follows you everywhere, and spends way too much time beatboxing. I complain, but the game wouldn’t be the same without him. The folks over at Our Nerd Home must feel the same way because they made a Claptrap trash can.

I would say that is entirely warranted. They also have a tutorial for you to follow along and build a Claptrap disposal unit of your very own if you want one in your home. And who wouldn’t? You’ll need a step-on trash can, cables, cardboard, and some other stuff, but the end result looks pretty amazing.

It would feel great to throw trash in this guy after having to deal with him in game for a few hours. Take that, you bucket of bolts!

[via Nerd Approved]

The average New Yorker generates about three pounds of trash every day, and a huge amount of that is food waste—which could be composted, if only we had the space. Enter "Green Loop," a proposal to build massive composting islands off the coastline of NYC.

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Time capsules are meant to give future generations a glimpse of what life was like many years ago. But not surprisingly, humans tend to fill time capsules with only the good artifacts of a civilization, making the story seem rosier than it really was. So when archaeologists and researchers want to find out the real story of a given era, they turn to garbage instead.

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You know that table top and dresser you’ve been meaning to throw out for the past couple of years now? Someone could actually use that. And those old clocks and broken chairs? Someone out there is willing to take them off your hands and fix it or salvage it for parts.

Helping you connect with that someone is Trashswag.

Trashswag is an web-based app that turns collecting and recycling trash into a social activity. The Toronto-based app lets users report stuff that they’re throwing out or have seen in the streets that have been thrown out by their neighbors. Users can snap pictures of the stuff they’ve seen so that others can gauge if they’re worth picking up or recycling.

There are also a bunch of categories on the app like like furniture, wood/lumber/timber, building materials, architectural salvage or garage/yard sale to make browsing easier.

There’s no word on if or when Trashswag will come to other cities, but if you’re looking for junk on the streets of Toronto, check it out here.

[via Pop Up City]

Oh, how I love wacky Japanese gadgets. And how I hate cleaning. So when Francesco over at Hobby Media[IT] tipped me off to these Japanese cleaning robots, I was just about in heaven.

These inexpensive robots from Kyosho don’t aim to be as sophisticated as something like a Roomba or Wall-E, but then they don’t cost hundreds of dollars either. The Sugoi remote control vehicles come in two versions – one that’s a dust mop, and the other is a trash bin on wheels. Both can be driven around using an included RF remote control, so you can clean without getting your lazy behind up off the couch. In case you need a visual explanation, check them out in the video below:

What’s not to like? I can imagine sitting on the sofa during the big game, and with a push of the button, in pops my R/C garbage can, ready to receive my empties. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get these in time to clean up my mess after this year’s Super Bowl, since they’re currently only for sale in Japan.

You can find the garbage can here, and the dust mop here. They each sell for ¥2079 (~$21 USD), and you can try and see if someone like White Rabbit Express can import them for you. While you’re at it, you might want to pick up one of these.

[via Hobby Media]