Glue Society Cleans Up with Junk Jukebox

Together with the councils of Waverley and Randwick, GPY&R Sydney has teamed up with Will O'Rourke and The Glue Society to encourage Sydneysiders visiting Coogee and Bondi beaches to dispose of their litter in public rubbish and recycling bins.

Says Bart Pawlak, executive creative director, GPY&R Sydney: "By using music as a reward, we're not just getting people to chuck their rubbish in the appropriate bins. We may even move punters to go as far as picking up other peoples' litter and put it in the bin."

The launch of Junk Jukebox occurred at Coogee beach yesterday (Thursday 23 January), with the installation moving to Bondi this afternoon, ahead of the populous beach days of the Australia Day Weekend.

Creative collective The Glue Society designed and developed the Junk Jukebox installation - creating an oversized stage carousel structure made of plantation plywood accommodating multiple bins. Whenever rubbish is deposited in the bins, the structure rotates with the musicians suddenly coming to life and performing live for a short period.

Ash Grunwald, Australian blues musician, plays live tunes on the Junk Jukebox. The music is delivered as a reward for every item of rubbish deposited. Grunwald has committed his time and talent to raise Sydneysiders' attention to the problem of litter.

During summer, up to 50,000 visitors frequent Bondi and Coogee every day. Despite there being hundreds of public bins along the beaches, the annual litter toll at Coogee alone equates to 400 tonnes of waste per annum.

Says David Joubert, executive creative director at GPY&R Sydney: "That's a perfectly clear sign that instructing people to not litter doesn't work. Rather than being punitive, we're changing the motivation through encouragement."

Drink containers, cigarette butts and plastic bags are the most common type of litter on these beaches. The Junk Jukebox approach is hoping to remove all these and other forms of litter.

The Junk Jukebox project was a proactive idea by GPY&R undertaken on a probono basis in conjunction with Will O'Rourke, the next generation production company.

Concept by GPY&R

Created by The Glue Society's James Dive 

Produced by Will O'Rourke