Bin Bin

In tandem with a team of fellow designers, we created Bin Bin to address the problematic fact that traditional, waxed cardboard produce boxes cannot be recycled. 

Our product and system design combined the lightweight convenience of these boxes with the durability and utility of a plastic bin, both elevating the aesthetics of a small food grocer’s display and enabling the produce life cycle – from pack to ship to display and back again – to function seamlessly, in a complete exchange loop, and without non-recyclable boxes. 

Bin Bin was designed for greengrocers to purchase and own, for them to then distribute to their local produce farmers. Farmers use the bins for both storage at the farm and transportation of produce back to the grocer, who then uses them for the produce display. The stocked bins go directly onto the produce shelves as display, while empty bins go back on the farmer’s truck for use at the farm, thus completing the exchange loop.

The bin itself is constructed of a mono-material formed from Ingeo, a Cradle to Cradle-certified biopolymer made from greenhouse gasses.Through its design and its system, Bin Bin eliminates the need for cardboard, and allows grocers to easily organize their produce displays through uniform, customizable, and attractive storage. 

Team members on this project included Gregory Beson, Weiran Chen, and Danielle Connelly. Bin Bin was a 2017 Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge finalist, and a 2018 Core77 Design for Social Impact runner-up.