When I leave my apartment, I don’t see a few pieces of debris on the left or right every day—don’t mind that the trash can maintained by the public works is less than 50 feet away from the entrance door. There is also one across the street. There is a third on the block; however, this density of public trash cans is rare in TenderNob.

All these trash cans are more or less constantly filled, full of remnants of urban life. In the corner of San Francisco, like most corners in and around the city center, I continued to swim in a sea of ​​misplaced disposable plastics and Amazon packaging supplies.

Is it because San Francisco does not have enough trash cans? Is the design troublesome to use? Frankly speaking, this is because of the former and the latter.

Currently, there are approximately 3,000 public trash cans in San Francisco that belong to the city government. For a city with a population of at least 875,000, this means that there is one urban trash can for every 291 or so residents; the average Californian throws out about 6 pounds of trash every day. Assuming that only 10% of San Francisco’s garbage goes into public trash bins every day, this roughly translates to every public works trash container that needs to hold more than 174 pounds of trash at any time—every day. These figures alone highlight the trash can problem in this city. (We didn't even consider any waste handled by tourists.)

It would cost nearly half a million dollars to effectively test a slimmer, easier to empty, and more attractive trash can near San Francisco, which is still absolute madness. After all, the sole purpose of the trash can is to hold trash-like bags of shit.

Public Works SF, the controversial local government organization responsible for maintaining these public trash bins, also admitted that San Francisco has a serious garbage problem. Part of this is directly related to the proposal to redesign the city's moss-colored trash cans, which were installed about thirty years ago. In the same period, many people are also easy targets for picking up rubbish, and piles of discarded rubbish are scattered in the area around them.

"San Francisco is a beautiful city, and keeping the city clean is a challenge. Finding the right public trash can at a reasonable cost to meet our needs promoted this design process," said Alaric Degrafinried, Director of the Public Works Department. The press release stated that there is a proposal to introduce three new prototype trash cans and test them throughout the city. "All three competing designs meet our requirements conceptually: they are durable, hard to tamper with, easy to repair, and beautiful. "

Earlier this week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to approve the $400,000 budget for this part of the project-less than $537,000-which will include five prototypes of each of three different designs. The prototype itself has been the focus of controversy lately, mainly due to the dazzling production and installation costs of each prototype.

Now, after much publicity and backlash (from city officials and the voters they serve), an amendment proposed by Matt Haney, the director of District 6, allows each test design to be implemented The initial US$20,000 bill has been reduced to US$12,000; once the selected design is in production, the San Francisco Chronicle states that the cost of each unit for mass production will be between US$2,000 and US$3,000.

This is still absolute madness. It costs nearly half a million dollars to effectively test the trash cans near San Francisco, which are thinner, easier to empty, and more attractive than the trash cans they intend to replace. After all, the sole purpose of the trash can is to hold garbage bags of shit.

Oh, the realization of the project at this stage will take about four years.

The bulky garbage bins spilling over the city are undoubtedly flawed. Try to recycle anything larger than a soda can or bottle, and you will find one such defect.

"I still think it will be a four-year process which is absurd," Hani told the newspaper. "They waste a lot of time, not just replacing the existing trash cans with better trash cans. I can hardly believe that San Francisco can custom design garbage that is better and cheaper than any other city or any company in the world. bucket."

However, in this stubborn, long-term testing phase, the real trash can problem in San Francisco can be seen: an act of complacency. San Francisco does not solve the essence of the problem-a problem that requires simple utilitarianism and organization to solve-San Francisco chose to use it to make a performance pony; use a landfill to build mountains.

Those of us who are lucky enough to call this maddening utopia home can attest to the fact that the city’s trash cans have always been in excess. They are always full, surrounded by a moat of misplaced garbage bags, stained mattresses, and discarded furniture. It is difficult to see how the shiny new stainless steel trash can will solve the objectively speaking maintenance and maintenance problems, rather than a complete defect in the product design.

(In other words: the bulky trash cans spilled in the city are undoubtedly defective. Try to recycle anything larger than a soda can or bottle, and you will find one such defect.)

However, there is hope.

After a series of scandals and total corruption, Mohammed Nuru, the director of public works in legal trouble, was dismissed in early 2020. Public works may be split into smaller departments at some point. The agency more effectively maintains the collection of its public trash cans. The public works department has also submitted budget applications for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, and will allocate more funds for trash can cleaning, emptying and sanitation. Although Mayor Breed’s 2022 budget focuses mainly on economic recovery and coping with the city’s continuing homelessness rate, it does indicate an increase in spending on street cleaning and overall city maintenance.

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But for now, it seems that we must continue to compress the garbage in these 90s bins to fit our compostable takeaway containers.

SF transplantation, frequent coffee shops; small life lovers. The iPhone has not turned off silent mode for about nine years. Editor of The Bold Italic.

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