Gone Buggy
Michael Strutt gives binning a new beginning
BY Meribeth Deen
Photography by Michael Strutt
The thesis projects of industrial design students at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver tend to have a humanitarian bent—they’ve come up with pill containers that are easier for the elderly to open and hydration systems for wheelchair athletes. Recent grad Michael Strutt put a twist on that trend when he looked to the city’s notorious downtown east side for inspiration. The result? A sleek imitation of the shopping carts pushed around by local “binners,” who make their livings cashing in recyclables.
When Strutt expressed interest in working on a project in the downtown east side, a friend introduced him to Ken Lyotier. Lyotier is a former binner and co-founder of United We Can, a non-profit recycling depot. The two started working together and conducting interviews to determine how Strutt could best help out.
Strutt learned that, contrary to popular belief, most professional can collectors are not homeless. According to Lyotier, roughly 80 percent of Vancouver’s binners live somewhere—usually in small, single room apartments. Some binners only work when they need money. Others turn binning into a full-time job—developing relationships with local business owners, collecting their cans and bottles, or specializing in niche recyclables like electronics and computer parts.
On a good day, an enterprising binner can make up to $100. But there are obstacles to success: binners often waste time at the beginning of the day trying to find shopping carts; police frequently confiscate carts because they belong to grocery stores; and businesses and residents consistently complain about shopping cart noise.
With this in mind, Strutt set out to design a cart light enough to carry up a few flights of stairs and small enough to fit in the binner’s apartment. He also wanted to make a quieter and more maneuverable cart than a traditional shopping cart.
The result was a 27-pound collapsible steel frame with canvas baskets (made from a sail he found at the dump) and wheels from old kids’ bicycles. With the help of a retired city engineer and his decible meter, Strutt tested the noise levels of his cart, called the Urban Binning Unit (UBU), against a standard shopping cart. A regular shopping cart is most noisy when it’s empty, but the UBU is virtually silent when empty, and only slightly noisier when filled with bottles and cans.
Though the design has been updated, the initial success of the UBU—an A+ grade, and an enthusiastic reception from the binners at United We Can—inspired Strutt to quit his job at a furniture manufacturer to promote his design full-time. Following the completion of a pilot study and road tests, Strutt plans to train people living in the downtown east side to help build more UBUs. He sees the project being funded through corporate advertising—a symbiotic idea in which he finds some humour. “Here are the binners, cleaning up after our consumer culture,” said Strutt, “and there are the corporations making all the mess.” If it all goes well, Strutt says he’d like to see the UBU being used by binners in cities across the country.
Lyotier continues to stand behind the project and United We Can acts as the UBU project’s head office. He says he hopes the UBU will help legitimize the binning business. “It’s not just about bottles and cans,” he says. “It’s about human beings.”
