How we designed an ashtray with a few nifty features for Copenhagen City Centre
If you walk around the Central Station in the centre of Copenhagen, you may have noticed the unique ashtrays mounted on the bins in the busiest areas. A solution we have developed in collaboration with the City of Copenhagen.
Even though the ashtrays don’t make a lot of noise, there’s a lot of thought behind them.
Why?
Smokers were confused about where to put the butts. Should they be thrown in while the fire is lit, or should they be extinguished on top of the basket and then thrown in when extinguished?
The result was that they ended up on the ground next to the rubbish bin instead, leaving a clean-up job behind.
The task was, therefore, to find a design that clearly signalled: Here is an ashtray that you can use. At the same time, the solution had to be intuitive and safe to empty.
In terms of design, we knew from the start that it had to look like a classic ashtray from the top, and from there, the idea generation began.
It would be smart if it could be mounted on the side of the bin. And we had to devise a clever mechanism to make it easy to empty – but not so easy that you accidentally open the ashtray and spill the contents on the ground.
The solution was a minimalistic and robust design that uses a ‘lift and tilt’ motion to open the bottom so that it can be emptied quickly and directly. Simply release the mechanism, and the ashtray falls back into place and is ready to use again.
Impact
People have become accustomed to the ashtrays in central locations in Copenhagen. The solution has clearly reduced the number of butts around the rubbish bins at the Central Station, where many people stand and smoke. At the same time, we’ve had a positive response from the refuse collection teams: we’ve created a design that works and doesn’t make their job of emptying the bins more difficult.