No, wait a minute. This smart trash can will not magically carry your garbage out for you, or pack your rubbish into a small cube that you can carry out in the palm of your hand.

What the Townew T1 Smart Trash Can will do however, is that it’ll open the lid automatically every time you want to throw stuff in it, auto seal your bags for you, and even replacing it with a new bag. But how well does it work? Let’s find out.

Design

The Trash Can is actually a very good looking home appliance — and a very discreet one as well.  The can is 40cm in height, weighs 3.5kg and has 15.5L capacity. It comes in matte white/beige or turquoise. I use mine in the office and probably wouldn’t use it in my kitchen, but that’s up to you.

The smart features

Thanks to a IR sensor on the top, the trash can will detect movement and approaching objects from the distance of up to 35 cm (13-14 inches) and pop the lid up automatically. While this is quite a useful feature, it’s not exact a ground breaking idea when it comes to trash disposal. Pedal trash cans let you achieve pretty much the same result without having your overpay for the word “smart” in the title.

The trash can also have a air tight seal. Bad odors coming from the trash can can be a huge annoyance in a home. Standard trash cans generally do a good job of keeping your trash hidden, but often fail at keeping the odors sealed in. In this regard, The Townew T1s sealing mechanism is a major plus gets rid of most odors.

Another helpful feature is that once the trash can is full, it will automatically seal the garbage in the waste bag, leaving it ready for you to take out. This is something definitely useful in the everyday, as you won’t have to get your hands dirty packing in the trash in the waste bag. And while you are out taking the trash, your smart trash can will automatically put a new water bag in place.

Image Credit: Townew T1

Suddenly, we begin to understand why trash can is called smart, right?

Verdict

It all comes down to the price. Buying this from the available stores, putting your trash into the smart self-opening device will cost you 1 500 SEK ($170). That’s quite a hefty price to pay for just the convenience of an automatic lid and bag replacement. I’d say that the Townew T1 mostly qualify as a cool niche product for those who love their homes to be smart and high-tech or are willing to pay extra for an interesting design. 

PROS

  • Somewhat smart.
  • Less bacteria.

CONS

  • Very pricey

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The Townew T1 Smart Trash Can was sent to me for free for review, but I did not get paid to write this. The thoughts on this product are my own. You can grab it from coolstuff.se in Sweden or (townews official site).