Although sustainable practices are steadily becoming more widespread among consumers, digital pollution is a relatively unknown and mostly ignored problem.
Accounting for 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, the invisible nature of the problem means it has failed to attract much attention. To raise awareness of the issue and start to tackle the problem, software company Soixante Circuits collaborated with French agency BETC to create the IRL Trashcan – physical bin that deletes all the emails from your trash folder.
The idea is to bring this invisible, digital problem into the physical world. The IRL Trashcan is actually a small computer that connects to a nearby Wi-Fi network and synchronises with hundreds of employees email accounts. By holding their work smartphone up to the NFC sensor on the device, all emails in their trash folder are immediately deleted.
Its creators hope the IRL Trashcan will introduce a new type of physical gesture that becomes second nature, similar to throwing an empty food wrapper or drinks can into the bin.
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