City of Frankfurt: Gamification for a clean city

The challenge

Frankfurt's green spaces and public squares are suffering from increasing littering - especially in heavily frequented city centre areas. The City of Frankfurt's question was: How can the behaviour of citizens be positively influenced in order to increase the use of public waste bins and at the same time promote a clean, liveable city?

Output

The interdisciplinary team from the fields of product design, business informatics and urban planning developed a smart rubbish bin that communicates with citizens via gamification and light interactions.

• Interactive technology: when waste is thrown in or deposit bottles are placed in the specially designed bottle ring, the bin reacts with light pulses.
• Networked system: When the bottle ring is full, the bin sends a signal to the surrounding containers - a playful feedback that increases attention and motivation.
• Positive reinforcement: The approach combines environmental protection with experience - the litter bins become communicating urban objects that create atmosphere and promote sustainable behaviour.

As an additional effect, the system supports the structured collection of deposit bottles and increases the social acceptance of public waste infrastructure.

Format & method

In the Cross Innovation Class, students from three to six different universities work in interdisciplinary teams on the challenges of the project partners.

• The process follows the logic of design thinking: in iterative feedback loops with the partners, the teams approach a solution step by step.
• The entire process is managed by the Cross Innovation Hub team and supported by trained facilitators.
• Prototypes can be created and tested in the workshops of the partner universities.

The Cross Innovation Class 2022 took place in the summer semester 2022 on the topic of Smart Cities.