A new effort to help people see garbage in a different way is rolling through San Francisco neighborhoods: 3D garbage trucks that look like you can see inside.
Glance at a recycling truck in the City today and you may see a truck that looks like the sides were removed. 3D artwork on the side of 20 collection trucks give the illusion that you can see all materials inside. The idea is to encourage people to see that most materials thrown away are not garbage at all. Look closely. You will see paper, metal, glass, and food scraps – all resources that should be recycled or composted. Near the middle of the image is an outline of a curbside bin, but inside are pictured the environments we want to help protect: a redwood grove, a pristine beach, a lush vineyard nourished by compost made from food scraps.
The moment of truth is when individuals decide to toss items into the trash. A chicken bone, egg shells or broccoli tossed in a garbage can ends up in a landfill, where it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Those same food scraps tossed in a green cart are transported to a modern compost facility, where most of the carbon in the bone is preserved in the finished compost and returned to the land in a fertile soil amendment applied by local farms.
Keep an eye out for collection trucks with these detailed photographs. They offer a new point of view for people in San Francisco: a clear view of garbage that points to the common sense role of recycling.
The graphics where conceived and designed by Singer Associates. The special graphics will be applied to 20 trucks operated by Sunset Scavenger and Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling companies.