Kris Spann is co-founder of Bin Bypass and previously People Parkers. A graduate of Queensland University of Technology’s Business School, Kris was President of a local Chamber of Commerce for five years where he refined his understanding of main street activations, regeneration projects and tactical urbanism. In this role Kris spearheaded a project to install the City of Sydney’s first parklet in 2015 and used the learnings from this project to partner with local architects to create a suite of four specially designed relocatable parklet products.

His proficiency with bringing innovative products to market stems largely from his time running some of Sydney’s premier shared creative workspaces. In particular, as Managing Director of MakerSpace & Company, Kris oversaw a multi-department design incubator providing space, facilities and education to Sydney’s maker community. In his time at this facility, Kris worked with architects, industrial designers and fabricators to prototype products and iteratively improve designs. His commitment to sustainability saw Kris launch a recycled plastics department at MakerSpace & Co and keep product stewardship, use of recyclable/recycled materials and reusability at the core of his design decision making.

Kris’ current endeavour is a patented docking station that attaches to bins or poles in the public domain where there are no container recycling options available to allow the public to simply leave their recyclable containers for others to collect for financial reward. The Bin Bypass, as it is called, has been industrially designed to be injection moulded with recycled plastics to create a completely closed loop design solution that utilises the materials it helps recycle in its own product fabrication process.

Photography by People Parkers