A Future Outlook On Public Trash Cans

According to an article by Mallory Moench written in the San Francisco Chronicle, during the summer of 2021, a San Francisco industrial design firm finished the conceptual drawings for 3 models of the city’s own unique garbage can. The next step of building prototypes to achieve the pursuit of the “perfect trash can” would not come at a low price tag, estimated between $12,000 to $20,000 each. San Francisco Public Works has proposed to spend up to $427,500 to produce 15 prototype cans. It is conceivable that the city will spend millions of dollars to produce 3,330 trash cans for public use in years to come. What justifies the high cost?

These futuristic cans would come with built in sensors to alert crews when they’re reaching capacity, block rodents out, and keep sidewalks cleaner. Moench states that the public has claimed that the existing trash cans don’t “blend into the landscape” and are overall unattractive, causing passersby to show a lack of respect for the cans. This leads to excess dumping, vandalization, or other misuses of the present trash cans. It is unclear if residents are to blame for dumping, if the existing trash cans themselves cause an unclean environment, or if the trash is simply neglected to be picked up.

Moench presents the fact that these new trash receptacles are more attractive and are a better designed “sleek” model of trash can. They are easy to service, maintain, and monitor so San Francisco can begin to solve this issue. However, some who work in the custom trash can business voice that a simpler can is better, and that there may be no such thing as the perfect public litter can.

There are a lot of questions and concerns that come to mind after reading this article. The public will deal with inevitable technical difficulties these trash cans might face along with trying to complete the task of throwing something away. Will it create more litter if trash cans aren’t working properly? Dealing with the masses for anything can be a huge undertaking, especially for things like public works or maintenance. Adding technological mishaps into the mix, might just break the camel’s back. Automation is generally great! But for a trash can?

Are they necessary? Probably not necessary, but one idea to fix issues SF faces. Could millions be spent in other areas of SF? Probably. Like the human waste issue SF is currently facing due to the abundance of homeless people and lack of public restrooms. According to Alexandra Vuksich’s opinion piece for The Washington Post, the current trash can is not one of the issues on the long list of problems SF faces, “Homelessness, lawlessness and a city unwilling to take the obvious steps to improve citizens’ quality of life are.”

Vuksich goes on to discuss local officials’ arguments for these new and improved trash cans by saying, “the roughly 3,000 dark green cans that have been on city streets since 1993 are too easy to break into, leading to scavenged trash tossed all over the surrounding sidewalk.” Going back to the other issues SF faces, homelessness is abundant and right under the local official’s noses. Trash being “tossed all over the surrounding sidewalk” is not a trash can problem, it is a homelessness problem. Engineering trash cans that are more secure will fix the access to the thrown away trash problem but not the people who are looking through the trash for scraps.

Maybe these high-tech $20,000 trash cans will fix certain issues, but will also add more to the list. And at the cost of them, is it worth it?

For more information on these unique trash cans head to https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/20-000-trash-cans-No-kidding-S-F-looks-to-16331284.php and if you would like to read the opinion piece head to https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/09/san-francisco-has-problems-12000-trash-cans-are-not-answer-any-them/ to read Vuksich’s words.