Sydney Olympic Park
Putting a fresh face on waste.
Helping Sydney Olympic Park reach 85% recycled waste through playful recycling messages.
Sydney Olympic Park is host to multiple annual events that attract thousands of visitors from all walks of life. This diverse group of visitors embody Sydney's multicultural heritage – a wide range of cultures where English isn't always spoken at home.
The Sydney Olympic Park Authority had set itself a target of reaching 85% recycled waste – a considerable increase from the 60% it had been achieving. To do this, they partnered with waste experts Bingo Bins to manage the logistics of the operation and help them promote their recycling targets.
Focus Creative were engaged to develop a messaging and design framework to educate and engage their culturally diverse visitors to dispose of their rubbish thoughtfully.
The brief was three-fold:
- Develop a clear communications framework to help diverse community groups speaking various languages
dispose of their rubbish in the correct bins.
- Create a robust design system with colour-coded bins and, helping them stand out around various spots at Sydney Olympic Park.
- Inform all visitors to the Park of the ambitious goals to achieve 85% recycled waste.
We further segmented our core audience of ‘Barista Wannabes’ to identify the best way to position each machine towards them.
We began by doing a site visit to learn about the space and design requirements. We then unpacked each component of the brief, exploring playful concepts while focusing on the educational needs.
We developed a striking colour palette to simplify and help visitors identify waste streams quickly. We created playful illustrations that stylistically showcased the waste that each bin took. These visual cues were all designed to support non-English speaking visitors.
Our messaging framework combined clear labelling with iconography, supported by a more playful message that focused on the outcome of the action – a more sustainable planet.
Finally, we introduced our goal of reaching 85% recycled waste as a 'call to action' encouraging our visitors to help us achieve our goal.
In 2021 the new Bingo Bins were rolled out across Sydney Olympic Park. During its time in operation, Sydney Olympic Park Authority has reached its goal of 85% recycled waste – two years ahead of schedule.