







































 Humanities and Social Science Research; Vol. 8, No. 4; 2025 

ISSN 2576-3024   E-ISSN 2576-3032 

https://doi.org/10.30560/hssr.v8n4p113 

 113 Published by IDEAS SPREAD 

 

Home Intelligent Waste Recycling Product Design 

Wang Siyua1 & Liu Xinyub1 

1 Xi'an Technological University, China 

Correspondence: Wang Siyu, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. E-mail: 
a2414802978@qq.com, b905229563@qq.com 

 

Received: July 26, 2025; Accepted: August 5, 2025; Published: August 6, 2025 

 

Abstract 

In the context of the widespread attention of garbage classification, the collection and treatment of household 

garbage has always been a headache. The research object of this project is young office workers. From the 

perspective of service design concept, it integrates the user pain points and user needs in the family intelligent 

household garbage classification and recycling service system by constructing the service scenario and service 

flow chart. Under the guidance of service design theory, it studies and analyzes the user portrait, user journey map 

and service blueprint. Combine tangible products with intangible services, and the "user-centered" service idea is 

applied to the garbage recycling system, and finally design the design of intelligent garbage recycling products 

classified from the source of garbage generation and the online design scheme. 

Keywords: smart home, garbage recycling, garbage sorting 

1. Introduction 

1.1 Background 

At present, at least two-thirds of the cities in China are facing the dilemma of being surrounded by garbage, which 

seriously affects the residents' quality of life and environmental hygiene. Garbage is the discarded items generated 

by people in production and life that have lost their use value. In densely populated cities, the collection and 

disposal of household waste has always been a headache. Although the traditional centralized landfill and 

incineration methods have solved the problem of garbage disposal to a certain extent, they have also caused serious 

pollution to the environment.Promoting the popularization of waste separation and resource recovery, changing 

traditional disposal methods, turning waste into treasure and realizing the resourceful use of waste are important 

tasks facing society today. In the work of garbage classification, from the source of garbage classification to the 

final process of garbage disposal, household users are often unable to effectively participate in garbage 

classification. This project improves the user experience in the process of waste classification and recycling in 

terms of service system design, and combines online service experience with offline products. 

In the process of promoting waste separation, the design of waste recycling products based on service design can 

enhance people's initiative of waste separation. Improving product design and user service experience can motivate 

people to actively participate in waste separation and recycling. The application of household intelligent recycling 

products in waste classification reduces the difficulty and complexity, improves the efficiency and accuracy of 

classification, and effectively improves the awareness and implementation of waste classification. Combining user 

experience and technological innovation, it promotes waste classification as a convenient, fun and beneficial way 

of life, saves land resources, reduces pollution, and shapes environmental awareness to promote social concern 

and sustainable development. Therefore, it is of positive theoretical significance and practical value to study the 

application of household intelligent recycling and innovative design thinking in waste classification and disposal. 

1.2 Research Content and Methodology 

This research starts from the plight of household garbage classification and recycling, researches and analyzes the 

existing garbage recycling products, and designs the household intelligent classification and recycling garbage can 

design with 1-2 person family as the use scenario, young office workers as the target group, and source part of the 

classification process. Through the research to understand the way, habits, attitudes of users in garbage 

classification, as well as their process in the process of garbage classification, to make and get the pain points and 

opportunity points existing in the process of garbage classification; to draw the user experience journey map, and 

to derive the user needs. Understand user expectations of services in the waste sorting system and establish service 

processes. Satisfy these needs by improving product functionality and provide direction for the design of smart 

mailto:e-mail@e-mail.com


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recycling products for home use. The research methods used in this paper are observation method, literature 

research method, user experience journey, stakeholder analysis, and service blueprint. 

2. Design Analysis Studies 

2.1 User Needs Analysis 

Through the research and analysis of the behavioral characteristics of the users in the garbage recycling, to 

determine the target users and characteristics of the analysis, to determine the 1-2 person family with the ability to 

consume the young office workers as the target user population, the young office workers have strong consumption 

ability, and produce more garbage, the acceptance of intelligent products is higher, this paper focuses on the 

generation of meal waste, courier cartons, plastic bottles, and other recyclable garbage and difficult to handle 

Battery waste cosmetic bottles and other garbage for the user model classification habits research, so as to build a 

user portrait. 

Combined with the actual scene when young groups use the garbage can, the four phases of garbage throwing 

behavior are split, which are the phases of garbage generation, garbage classification in progress, garbage recycling 

completion, and garbage putting, forming a user journey map. Then the user needs, user emotions, user pain points 

and opportunity points involved in the whole recycling garbage stage of young office workers were analyzed. In 

the garbage generation stage, users may have problems such as not being able to classify the garbage at the first 

time, and the opportunity point is that it can guide users to change their lifestyles to reduce the generation of 

garbage; in the garbage classification stage, users may have problems such as troublesome classification work and 

inaccurate classification results, so as to discover the opportunity points such as intelligent garbage classification 

and recycling and opening of garbage cans, etc.; in the garbage recycling completion stage, users may have the 

following problems At the stage of garbage collection, users may have problems such as not having enough sorting 

bins, not having differentiated garbage bags, etc. The opportunity lies in the design of multi-sorting modules.To 

sum up, when analyzing the design of household garbage cans for young office workers, as shown in Table 2.1, 

we should start from specific pain points such as the morning commute time is too tight to throw garbage in time, 

lack of knowledge of garbage classification, etc., and analyze the opportunity points specifically for the pain points 

in order to satisfy the needs of the target users. 

2.2 Household Waste Recycling Product Study 

Existing intelligent sensor trash can, most of the use of high-precision optical sensors, based on the height of the 

trash can barrel on the user's action capture, open the lid action to facilitate the user to throw the garbage; the 

biggest feature of the existing products can be realized automatically change the bag, the user does not need to 

contact the garbage directly. 

Young office workers use smart garbage cans to pay more attention to its ease of use, functionality and appearance 

design. The demand for ease of use mainly includes the provision of a convenient way to dispose of garbage; the 

demand for functionality is analyzed to include intelligent identification of garbage types; and the demand for 

appearance is mostly simple and beautiful. Through the comparison and analysis of user needs and existing 

products to find out the direction of improvement, the existing intelligent garbage cans on the market achieve 

intelligent throwing, but for the target users need to be designed from the classification of intelligent, instant 

classification functions. 

2.3 Research on the Environment of Use 

There are multiple scenario areas in the home where different waste collection categories need to be considered. 

In the kitchen area, consideration needs to be given to the ability of young workers to quickly and easily sort and 

dispose of waste during cooking and food preparation. In the living room/living room area for rest and recreation, 

people need to easily dispose of their trash while watching TV, playing games, or gathering with friends. Similarly, 

intimate areas such as bedrooms or offices often require the disposal of paper, packaging materials and other small 

trash. 

Bathroom areas are mainly used for discarding paper towels, makeup wipes and other bathroom waste to ensure a 

neat and sanitary bathroom environment. At the entrance of the home or in the hallway area, people usually need 

to dispose of mail, delivery packaging and other trash entering the home. By analyzing multiple scenario areas in 

the home and sorting and processing waste according to recycling categories, it can meet the waste management 

needs of young workers in different scenarios, while improving the tidiness and hygiene of the home environment. 

 

 



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3. Service Process Analysis 

Through the preliminary research and analysis, we establish the target users as young office workers, and present 

the stakeholders in the smart recycling bin service system in a visual way, divided into key users, internal and 

external stakeholders, with young office workers as the core service object, and the stakeholders as APP users, 

managers, operators, supervisors, partners, manufacturers, etc., and the external layer as the government and the 

environmental protection organization, etc. The government has prestige and appeal, while the environmental 

protection organization can realize the social function value as the regulator. The outer layer is the government 

and environmental protection organizations, etc. The government has the prestige and appeal while the 

environmental protection organizations can realize the value of social functions as regulators. 

After analyzing the stakeholder relationship, the service system mainly provides garbage recycling service for 

target users by combining offline product entities and online software APP, and through the combination of product 

equipment and APP, it can realize the functions of garbage recycling classification, garbage can monitoring, and 

rewarding for recycling and putting in garbage cans. The mobile terminal provides intelligent management of 

garbage cans through information flow and user flow, as well as behavioral data record feedback and points 

exchange, online shopping mall shopping, user socialization and other services, while the backend management 

terminal mainly analyzes users' recycling information and information feedback through information flow. 

Through the analysis of the various processes in the household intelligent recycling bin service system, it visually 

demonstrates the foreground and background functions of the customer visibility line during the whole user 

experience process. The analysis of the entire garbage classification process stages and behavioral disassembly, 

can be derived from the service focus on the target population and offline intelligent garbage can equipment, online 

APP, in-depth analysis of the foreground technology and background behavior of household garbage classification 

and recycling system.The core of the whole service focuses on how the target user group can complete the 

household garbage classification and recycling behavior through the offline smart garbage can hardware 

equipment and the online APP software platform, and its successful operation highly relies on the close synergy 

between the front-end interaction technology and the back-end support behavior.The core of the household smart 

recycling product service system is that users can complete garbage sorting through the offline smart bucket and 

online APP, and its smooth experience relies on the clear division of labor between the front and backstage. The 

frontend (visible to users) interacts directly with users: before sorting, the APP displays the status of the bin; during 

sorting, the screen on the bin recognizes the type of garbage in real time and guides the user to put it in, which is 

intuitive for the user to operate; after sorting, the APP provides the recycling records, points rewards, redemption 

malls and community activities. The backstage (invisible to users) provides strong support: before sorting, it 

monitors the status of the bucket, manages user accounts.  

4. Design Development 

4.1 Design Positioning 

The following aspects need to be considered when designing and analyzing home scenes for young office workers 

as target users. Young office workers usually have a tight schedule, and the design positioning should focus on the 

convenience of the product so that it can be easily integrated into their lifestyles. Garbage disposal should be 

simple and quick, easy to operate, and not take up too much time and energy. Target users are more familiar and 

receptive to technological products. Intelligent technologies can be integrated into the garbage cans, such as sensor 

recognition and automatic sorting, to provide an intelligent waste management experience. 

Based on the needs analysis and service system construction targeting typical users, different design options are 

analyzed to finalize the solution. A household intelligent sorting and recycling bin is designed to focus on solving 

the source problem of garbage sorting. By combining users' needs for function, form and color, it helps users 

recycle waste at the source by optimizing the service design in order to reduce the pressure of waste disposal at 

the end. The design of the product includes two parts: the physical household smart recycling bin and the mobile 

application. For the design of the physical product, it covers functional design, appearance form, basic structure, 

human-machine dimension and color material analysis. The design of the mobile application includes information 

architecture and interface design. 

4.2 Offline Product Design for Household Intelligent Recycling  

By adopting a modularized design, it is divided into three large modules and one small module. Each module can 

be used individually to accommodate a recycling category, and the corresponding module is automatically used 

according to the category of garbage, thus realizing the convenience and flexibility of garbage sorting as well as 

the fine management of garbage sorting at source. It is able to automatically identify and categorize the garbage 



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items to be put into the garbage without the need for users to manually sort them. Realized through sensor 

technology and intelligent algorithms. Uses image sensors, weight sensors, and infrared sensors to detect garbage 

features such as appearance, weight, and infrared reflection. After comparing with the pre-stored garbage 

classification data, the garbage category is automatically recognized. According to the garbage category, it is put 

into the corresponding storage area, such as recyclables, wet garbage and hazardous garbage. 

Real-time monitoring and management of garbage cans is achieved through various sensors and smart technologies 

to improve the accuracy and efficiency of waste separation and recycling. Smart garbage cans can be equipped 

with capacity sensors to monitor the filling of the garbage cans in real time. By accurately grasping the capacity 

of the garbage cans, garbage collection and disposal can be carried out in a timely manner, avoiding overflow or 

overfilling of garbage. With the help of image recognition, object recognition and other technologies, smart trash 

cans can accurately recognize the type and classification of garbage. Users do not need to manually sort the garbage, 

improving the accuracy and convenience of garbage sorting. It can record and monitor the placement tracking and 

classification of garbage, and transmit the data to the backend system for analysis. By analyzing and feeding back 

this data, users can understand the trend of waste generation, the effectiveness of classification and the results of 

recycling. It can be connected to the Internet for remote management and control. Users can monitor the garbage 

cans, set parameters, and remotely control the opening and closing of the garbage cans through cell phone 

applications or cloud platforms to realize remote operation and management of the garbage cans. 

4.3 Household Smart Recycling Online Product Design  

The design concept of APP shows the vitality of nature's colors and conveys an environmentally friendly, low-

carbon, recycling and sustainable living concept. At the same time with the auxiliary colors of blue and green in 

line with the concept of green recycling design, the interface prototype is designed using the iPhone model as a 

carrier, the design meets the trend of young office workers and environmental protection and recycling of the APP 

interface. The user opens the APP and triggers the interactive behavior. Firstly, they need to log in or register, and 

enter the homepage after logging in; the homepage includes a guide to garbage classification, a garbage recycling 

calendar, a map search area, and a product recommendation area, which exist independently and are easy for users 

to recognize. The solar powered feature converts sunlight into electricity through a solar panel mounted on the 

trash can and stores it for use in the trash can. The bin is equipped with a built-in battery or battery pack to store 

the converted electricity and provide power. The advantages of solar power are that it is a renewable energy source 

that reduces dependence on traditional energy sources, and that it can be used in unpowered environments, which 

increases applicability and flexibility and reduces operating costs. 

The navigation bar at the bottom of the homepage is distributed with the function icons of the five modules. Among 

them, the center of the navigation bar is the points account module, which is also a special feature for recording 

garbage collection. The user connects to the account through the smart trash can home system, and after confirming 

the connection, it records the type of garbage and begins to collect information on recycling delivery behavior. 

After the user completes the door-to-door recycling or community delivery, the background automatically 

calculates the recycling category and weight and converts the points to the personal account, and the APP interface 

displays the recycling information and the points obtained. Users can exchange the points for prizes or art and 

environmental protection activity services through the mall section to promote environmental protection and waste 

recycling behavior. 

5. Conclusion 

This paper designs a household intelligent recycling trash can construction service system. Firstly, the process of 

garbage classification and recycling is decomposed, and the behavioral journey of young office workers is sorted 

out. Finally, the design ideas and directions of household intelligent garbage recycling products are proposed based 

on the principle of improving user experience, with the goal of realizing the classification and recycling of garbage 

and alleviating the pressure on the end, and subconsciously guiding the users to take the classification and recycling 

of garbage as a habit. From the perspective of design, the recycling of household garbage is integrated into the 

product system, and the combination of “online + offline” mode improves the user's participation in garbage 

recycling. 

Reference 

[1] Mirchandani, S., Wadhwa, S., Wadhwa, P., & Joseph, R. (2017). IoT enabled dustbins. In 2017 International 

Conference on Big Data, IoT and Data Science (BID) (pp. 73–76). https://doi.org/10.1109/BID.2017.8336576 

[2] Bone, J. L. (2016). Household Waste Recycling in Rural Areas in the Netherlands and Britain. Dutch Crossing, 

17(50). https://doi.org/10.1080/03096564.1993.11784013 



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[3] Sleaford's new Household Waste Recycling Centre will open on Friday 25 April. (2014). M2 Presswire. 

 

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Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. 

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 

license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 


