Design Type:  Eco-Design Concept

Designer:  Essential Essential

REturn is a simple, elegant waste processor that makes the environmentally responsible act of composting food waste convenient and rewarding at an individual level, wholly inside the home. REturn offers a convenient way to manage food scraps and organic waste without burdening the public waste infrastructure. Diverting waste from the trashcan and returning it to your backyard as nutrient-rich compost reduces the presence and volume of garbage in your home. Users who don’t currently compost can reduce the volume and frequency of trash collection, since their bin will no longer smell of rotting food. Homeowners who composted traditionally will no longer have to manage a slop bucket, an outdoor compost pile, or handle compost as loose dirt. Urban dwellers can now compost without a backyard. And everyone can enjoy reducing the burden on landfills and sewage treatment plants. The outer enclosures, insert tray, sweeper paddle and exit plates are fabricated from stainless steel sheet stock. The base ballast is cast from iron. The ‘open-close’ and ‘advance’ mechanism components are machined from brass and stainless steel, and coupled to molded gears and pulleys. The shredder drums are machined from aluminum. All plastic parts are injection-molded from polypropylene. The compressor gearmotor, aeration fan, power transformer, heaters, and the shredder induction motor are sourced components. The control circuit board is custom-fabricated. Considering the magnitude of the US landfill problem, we identified two main challenges: • Make a significant environmental impact by making it easy and rewarding for an average user to responsibly manage food scraps and other organic waste. • Allow users to develop a more direct connection between the food they eat, the waste they create, and their local environment. Our experience with food scraps and waste in the office inspired these goals. From coffee grounds to banana peels, orange rinds to lunch leftovers, the volume of everyday organic waste generated was disturbing. What happens to food after the trashcan? Is there a better, more responsible way of dealing with scraps than the trashcan? Can we reclaim the value within that waste? How can we change the status quo? We recognized this was a serious problem. As we explored, we identified three common methods of dealing with organic waste: the trash can, the garbage disposal, and composting. While composting has benefits over more popular means of disposing of organic waste, most US households do not compost. According to recent estimates, over 60 percent of household waste in the US is recyclable or compostable, yet Americans compost less than 10 percent of their waste. Most Americans feel that composting is complicated and time-consuming, as well as distasteful and unpleasant. Several home composting solutions are currently available on the market, but they: -expose the user to the odor and handling of decomposing garbage -require messy handling of both waste and the compost product -do not simplify the complexity of composting -fail to provide obvious benefit: financial, practical, and/or aesthetic By creating a composter that people can interact with like a trashcan, we hope to overcome barriers that keep individuals from responsibly managing their food waste, and influence a real improvement on how we all handle trash, household by household. REturn addresses specific elements of the design challenge: - Easy to Adopt: Similar in appearance and interaction to a common trashcan, REturn allows the user to compost organic waste with a minimum of hassle. - Easy to Use: Hands-free access allows users to use both their hands to empty or scrape food waste into the bin, without touching the unit. - Smells Good: REturn’s airlock sweeper transfers waste to the shredder, keeps the hopper clean and keeps odors inside. - Handles the Big Stuff: the shredder in REturn accepts large items that would normally need to be chopped to size. - Clean: By using stainless steel, a naturally antibacterial material, on the exterior, REturn embodies the idea of cleanliness and sterility, making it welcome in a kitchen environment. - Effective: Through management of airflow, REturn maintains aerobic decomposition. Exhausted process air is filtered and optionally scented to freshen the room. - Convenient: REturn delivers processed compost in compacted, easy-to-handle bricks, which are easy to store, transport, and add to topsoil. The design of the stainless steel hopper leaves the unit normally sealed. Stepping on the pedal sweeps the hopper door open in a handsfree manner, and releasing the pedal allows the spring-return of the door to sweep food waste into the shredder. The door’s closing reseals the unit and activates the shredder. Shredded food waste lands on a rotisserie tray that advances with each loading and allows maximum aeration of the food waste for faster decomposition. Food waste completing one rotisserie revolution is shunted onto lower levels, mixing and turning as it slowly moves through all five levels and finally into the collection hopper. The ventilation system and process heaters keep decomposing material well aerated to encourage aerobic bacteria and maintain an optimal temperature for compost conversion. The elevated temperature of the chamber sterilizes weed seeds, kills insect larvae, and permits the safe composting of meat or dairy products by killing pathogenic bacteria. All of the process air circulating the compost chamber exits through an activated carbon filter and fragrance holder that leaves it fresh and lightly scented. Converted compost is compacted and returned in convenient bricks. Because REturn removes the source of trashcan odor, users no longer have to take out trash when odor becomes unpleasant. When used in conjunction with an effective recycling program, REturn can even remove the necessity of a trashcan from the home. REturn is especially useful in urban environments, where users cannot maintain a backyard compost pile, or tolerate the smell of a slop bucket. Urban compost can be used to enrich windowboxes, plantpots, and community gardens. REturn makes composting easy by removing usability barriers. Increased composting of organic waste eases the burden on landfills, saves energy, and encourages users to return something to the land that gives them food.