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]

A year ago, pod-shaped recycling bins were installed all over the UK by Renew London. The so-called “smart bins” definitely look better than your average trash can. Now, you might be wondering, why would trash cans have Wi-Fi capabilities and an LCD installed on front?

The answer, my friends, is advertising. Targeted advertising.

The bin looks for smartphones nearby that have their Wi-Fi turned on. It then logs their MAC address and calculates the “proximity, speed, duration and manufacturer” of each device. It tracks the phone owner’s actions to then display targeted adverts on the screen, which will play as they walk past the bin.

Sounds smart, right? Yeah, definitely, but it’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way because of privacy issues. To be honest, I’d be pretty irked, too, if this phone was tracking what I was doing just so it could show me an ad or two when I walk past the bin.

So it was only a matter of time before the bins had their Wi-Fi and tracking capabilities pulled. The City of London has called on Renew to stop recording people’s movements, so Londoners can breathe a sigh of relief now.

The City of London released the following statement:

We have already asked the firm concerned to stop this data collection immediately. We have also taken the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Irrespective of what’s technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public.

[via C|NET]

Most of the replicas I’ve seen are of robots, vehicles and weapons. The inspiration behind Darius Bode’s creations is a lot humbler than that. But it’s one that is quite intriguing when you see it in action: a trash compactor. To be more specific, Bode made a working replica of the Schörling 2R rearloader.

In his making-of article (pdf), Bode confesses that he’s been fascinated by the compactor since he was a kid: “I think there is some kind of magic about this packer because it moves so stolidly (sic) and calm no matter what you throw in there.” He started with cardboard models of the compactor, but in 2009 he finally decided to make one that works just like the original. He ended up making a 1:11 scale replica using aluminum and steel. It takes its time, but the tiny compactor actually works. The video below shows it taking on some aluminum cans.

Aaaand we just spent a few minutes looking at a miniature trash compactor crush some cans which we could have just as easily crushed with our hands (or heads.) Thanks Internet! There’s more where that came from. Check out Bode’s YouTube channel for additional videos of the replica.

[via Darius Bode (pdf) via Classic Refuse Trucks via Doobybrain]

Looking for a trash can that’ll take your garbage to another time and space? Or how about one that’s way bigger on the inside? This trash can’t do any of that. That’s what your imagination is for.

To help you make up stories about the adventures of your leftover food and scratch paper, the trash can has a police light that turns on when you open the lid. It will then play the dematerializing sound effect when the lid closes.

Proof that it’s not bigger on the inside:

What this trash can can do is make a lot of your money disappear, never to be seen again. ThinkGeek is selling it for a whopping $90 (USD).

[via Geekologie]

If people still can’t get it right after you’ve color coded and labeled your trash cans to death, then what’s a designer supposed to do? Come up with an even better trash can in the form of GO Recycle.

The lid of each bin actually has a molded sample of what you’re supposed to throw in them. Of course, it would help if they still had their labels (or were actually made out of glass, paper and metal,) so the lids would only serve as an additional guide to help out trash throwers who aren’t sure which bin their garbage is supposed to go in.

The GO Recycle bin was designed by GOODSSPASSION, who “intends to revolutionize the recycling industry and make it consumer-friendly” as “the idea of the GO bin is [to] make recycling fun and convenient.”

[via Yanko Design]