Bins. They’re not the most glamorous object in our homes, but could they be? I live in a busy houseshare with four other girls, so it’s safe to say when it comes to our kitchen bin, our cup runneth over, literally. I feel like I’m forever emptying the bin, trudging down the stairs with yet another bag, only to find it brimming again by the time I get back.
The obvious solution, you might say, would be a bigger bin. Sadly, like most London kitchens, ours can barely handle a kettle and a toaster side by side, so a supersized rubbish bin is out of the question. Enter: the bin of my dreams. The Joseph Joseph Titan Stainless-steel Trash Compactor.
This sleek little number doesn’t just look like something plucked from a futuristic showroom (a major upgrade from our grim, bin juice-leaking predecessor), it actually has a trick, or two, under its lid. It’s a self-compacting bin. With a built-in mechanism that lets you squash down the rubbish, it creates more space, which means fewer trips to the curb. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement, so I had to put it to the test to see if this could really be the future of domestic waste management.
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What makes the Joseph Joseph compacting bin so fancy?
So, what exactly makes this bin feel like the Rolls-Royce of rubbish receptacles? For starters, the Titan isn’t just a place to chuck your scraps, it’s a stainless-steel trash compactor in disguise. Thanks to its nifty handle, you can push waste down hygienically without ever getting your hands dirty. The brand claims this squeezes up to three times more rubbish into the same space. That means a 30-litre bin suddenly behaves more like a 90 litre one (or 60L if you go for the smaller 20L version), all without eating up precious floor space.
The clever design also means you don’t need to worry about torn liners or bin juice catastrophes as it promises an anti-tear mechanism that keeps bags intact, whether you’re using Joseph Joseph’s own liners or a standard supermarket roll. And, for those of us who dread that mystery garbage smell wafting through the kitchen, the built-in odour control system uses replaceable carbon filters to keep things fresher for longer. In short, it’s less mess, fewer trips outside and a bin that looks far more chic than it has any right to.
Why I’m obsessed
You just take it out of the box and you’re good to go. All that’s required is popping the odour filter into the orange tray under the lid and slotting in a liner. To do this, you just open the bag fully, drop it loosely into the bin, and hook the edges into the slits in the orange handles. That’s it. Job done.
And yes, I’ll admit it – even as someone who writes about household products for a living, being this excited about a bin feels a little unhinged. But I really do like it. The pedal mechanism might not reinvent the wheel, but it keeps things hands-free, while the lid glides shut on its own, making the whole experience seamless. Even before you get to the compaction feature, the size impressed me. We went for the smaller 20L version (because of our aforementioned tiny kitchen), yet it still felt spacious enough for daily use.
One of my favourite features turned out to be the odour filter. It might not be doing much right now in the cooler months, but I know, come May, I’ll be thanking it for saving us from that familiar hot-bin smell and the fruit flies that come with it.
Then there’s the star of the show: the compaction mechanism. Using it is ridiculously simple – you just lift the silver lever, lower it over your bin contents, and push down and pull back up once flattened. It’s not only easy, it’s also deeply satisfying. Instantly, you’re rewarded with a bin that feels more spacious and orderly instead of looking like it’s losing a fight with the laws of physics. I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying it triples the capacity, especially if you have stubborn packaging or bulkier plastics, but it definitely makes a noticeable difference. Previously, I was emptying the bin once a day/every other day but now I can go almost five days before it needs an empty, which in a busy flatshare, feels revolutionary.
Emptying the bin is also easier thanks to the clever engineering inside. Instead of stretching liners over sharp corners (and risking catastrophic tears), the bag simply unhooks from the side slots. No rips, no spills, no disasters.
That said, there are a couple of caveats. It’s all too tempting to get carried away with compacting and filling to capacity, so the resulting bag can wind up being surprisingly heavy when you come to emptying it and you need to be careful when you lift it out. We don’t want to be crying over spilt garbage. Joseph Joseph’s own liners held up impressively well, but I’d be cautious with cheaper supermarket bags. And, while the compactor lets you delay bin runs, I’d advise against doing this if you don’t have a separate food waste bin – decomposing leftovers left to sit for too long will always attract pests, no matter how fancy the bin.
My final verdict
Overall, I’ve been genuinely impressed by the Titan – it looks sleek, keeps things surprisingly clean, and the compaction feature has genuinely halved the number of times I’m trudging rubbish down the stairs. The odour filter is a small but brilliant touch, and my flatmates love that it stops us overstuffing the bin into chaos. That said, it’s easy to get carried away by compacting, which can make bags very heavy, and food waste still needs emptying more frequently. At £199, it’s undeniably an investment for something as unglamorous as a bin – but for me, the time saved, the tidier kitchen and the sheer satisfaction of squishing rubbish makes it feel kind of worth it.
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