The Garbage Guardian mascot: a small round knight in a white visored helmet with a blue plume, blowing a golden trumpet, leaning on a bin lid embossed with GARBAGE GUARDIAN.

Garbage Guardian

A tiny knight for your trash bin. Sounds the trumpet when the bin is full or the lid stays open — until someone actually empties it.

€49€59 pre-register price — pay once, own it forever. No subscription.

Pre-register or build one yourself — it's open source

Why your household needs a knight

Every shared kitchen has the same unsolved problem: a full bin, an open lid, and three people who each thought someone else was taking it out. The Garbage Guardian is a stick-on sensor inside the bin lid that settles it. It sleeps until motion wakes it, checks the fill level and the lid, and if things are not in order it sounds the trumpet — escalating from a polite reminder to full medieval panic — until the bin is actually empty.

🎺 No snooze button

The alarm stops when the sensor measures an empty bin or a closed lid. Not before. Knights don't snooze.

🔋 Months on two AAs

Deep sleep at a few microamps, woken only by motion. No charging cable, no dead smart gadget after a week.

📵 No app, no account

Stick it in the lid, switch it on, done. A trash bin should not have an account.

How it responds

The knight climbing out of a tipped-over bin, still holding the trumpet.

Bin ~95% full

Alarm until emptied, escalating with the remaining space: calm at 10 cm, full panic at 1 cm. It stops when the sensor measures an empty bin — not before.

The knight looking out from behind a closed bin, trumpet at the ready.

Lid open > 1 minute

Continuous alarm, extra judgmental. Close the lid and the knight forgives instantly.

The knight standing at attention with trumpet raised and a bin-lid shield.

Otherwise

Silence. Deep sleep. Honor. The knight only speaks when there is something worth trumpeting about.

Specifications

Fill sensingVL53L1X time-of-flight laser — measures distance to the trash with millimeter precision, works in total darkness
Lid detection6-axis motion sensor reads the lid angle from gravity — no magnets, no moving parts, works on any bin
BrainNordic nRF52840 (ARM Cortex-M4)
AlarmPiezo trumpet with escalating patterns, from polite beep to full panic
Power2× AA batteries, months of guard duty — sleeps at a few µA, woken by motion
CalibrationNone. Mount it, switch it on with the lid closed, done
ConfigurationBluetooth (thresholds, alarm personality) — planned, works fine without it
MountingAdhesive strip or magnets, tool-free, inside any bin lid
SizeApprox. 70 × 40 × 25 mm (final enclosure in development)
FirmwareOpen source (MIT) — inspect every line
Running costs€0. No subscription, no cloud fees — just fresh AAs a couple of times a year

What it will never have

Pre-register

The first batch of 100 units is in preparation. Pre-register and you'll get the early-bird price of €49 (instead of €59) when ordering opens. No payment now, no obligation — just first in line.

One email when ordering opens. Nothing else. Unsubscribing is honored — unlike your bin duty.