Porto — Underground Waste Containers

Working with a focus increasingly within the future cities/future of living space has me noticing things I did not pay much attention to before.

When spending a significant amount of time again this summer in Portugal, the underground waste container system in Porto caught my eye — amongst other things.

The experience of culturally high-value areas of cities is often compromised by a large number of overflowing bins and recycling often fails. The solution the city of Porto found is an underground waste system.

One structure can hold several containers. The lid is opened by a hydraulic, electric, or mechanical system, giving access to the containers that are then pulled overusing the crane of the collection vehicle.

There are about 260 underground container points in place, with about 635 containers, some dedicated for paper, plastic and metal, glass, and residual waste. [numbers from 2018, source: interregeurope.eu]

The implementation of this system and the equipment installation was mostly promoted and executed by the municipality, with some being installed by private companies.

Through the increase in the storage capacity of the street bins, the demand for operational interventions decreased significantly, and with it operational costs.

Looking into this, I also came across the pneumatic underground system that is up and running in Stockholm, Sweden.

My name is Alexandra. I am a creative strategist and currently studying to earn my second Masters, this time around, in Applied Psychology because I believe understanding human nature will help me be a better designer. Let’s connect on LinkedIn and have a chat!