Functional Art: Trash Removal With Aesthetic Approval

Overview

Presque Isle State Park, located in Erie, Pennsylvania, is a 3,200-acre sandy peninsula that arches into Lake Erie. Presque Isle hosts 4 million annual visitors, which leads to an accumulation of litter along Presque Isle’s beaches. In efforts to encourage proper waste disposal, it was proposed to Engineering students in various courses to develop prototype fun and functional art pieces that will collect trash and recyclables to decrease the prominence of litter. By using innovation and efficiency methods, a functional art piece was designed that can withstand Erie’s harsh weather environments, meet customer needs, and have an eye appealing design that is anticipated to help motivate the public to reduce waste. It is anticipated for eight FUNctional art bins to be manufactured: one trash and one recyclable for each of the three main swimming beaches at Presque Isle (Beaches 1, 6, & 8), as well as a single set to be located at Penn State Behrend’s Campus.

Objectives

The mission of our project is to use innovation and efficiency methods to design a functional art piece that can withstand Erie’s harsh weather environments, meet customer needs, and have an eye appealing design that is anticipated to help motivate the public to reduce waste.

Approach

● Met with both advisor and sponsor to gather customer constraints, needs and additional data.
● Performed analysis on given Adopt-A-Beach data for predictive purposes.
● Started generating multiple concepts for design as well as creating a survey for the public.
● Created AutoCAD Inventor model for scaling, and additional design purposes.
● Created a 3D printed model to scale a model that would be produced in the real world.
● Continued with the Inventor model and added internal components, as well as other functionalities.
● Developed an initial cost analysis to determine a possible price for the design itself.

Outcomes

● The final CAD model is anticipated to
promote recycling and sustainability,
as well as reduce litter and pollution.
● The final CAD model allows for easy
forklift access and maintenance.
● The final CAD model includes a
container for both trash (house
portion) and recycling (lighthouse
portion).
● The design layout for the lighthouse
portion is anticipated to reduce
contamination found in recycling with
a transparent design concept.
● The final CAD model was designed to
meet customer requirements, while
also being wildlife friendly.