By Ishmael Zay-Bangura
Freetown, 25th May, 2026- 16-year-old Josephine Wells has created a trash bin shaped like a bottle, rooted in behavioural psychology, to change how people dispose of waste at the beach.
Josephine’s creative solution comes through her observations about trash at the beach. She believes that many efforts to tackle waste at the beach have not been effective, stating that: “people clean, trash returns”, describing the efforts never last, noting that the approach uses too much human labour.
In an interview with local people at the beach, Josephine found that many were reluctant to use ordinary bins. “Because of the lack of innovative trash bins, we can’t hold dirt or trash and return home with it,” Abdul Turay expressed concerns that regular bins do not appeal to them.
This inspired her to create a “creative vineyard,” a bin shaped like a bottle, not just any trash bin. She applied principles of behavioral psychology, hypothesizing that creative bins influence people to stop littering at the beach.
Josephine’s approach is methodical. She is treating her project like a science project: first, establish a hypothesis; second, collect data; third, scale up. “We do not just want to jump to conclusions; we test before we scale,” she said. After collecting data, the plan is to use the information collected, study the bin and see ways to improve its quality and efficiency.
However, Josephine faces a lack of funding. “Mostly, I kept my lunch to fund this project,” she said, adding also had support from her dad and mum. She stated that her family has contributed immensely in supporting her to buy materials, paint and pay a welder, proudly noting that she also joined in the welding work.
Despite being a long-term project with no full structured plan yet, Josephine remains determined. She hopes that her ultimate goal is to expose more research and create a nature-based sustainable initiative.
