Chapter 1: Why is there a lack of trash cans in San Francisco?
This is Roman Mars. I'm in beautiful San Francisco, California.
Recently, Roman headed across the bay from Oakland to San Francisco. He is not in the city very much, only a couple times a month.
But if I'm here during the daytime and I have a little bit of time, I very often go to Tony's Slice House in North Beach and get a slice of pizza and soda and a paper cup.
Roman took his pizza and he started walking. And when he was done eating, he looked around for a trash can.
There's no trash can where I'm standing right now. I don't know if there's one in the next block, but I kind of expect a trash can every major intersection.
Because that's where people end up standing while they wait to cross the street and they might have something to throw away. It makes sense. But like he said, no trash cans in sight.
And it got me thinking. Who determines how frequent there should be a trash can? And like, who determines the placement? Are they placed like strategically? Is there an algorithm or a formula for these things? Because when I see the sort of dearth of trash cans in the city and I'm walking around with my, you know, food waste, I think, well, this is why the city is so dirty.
Like it has a lot of litter.
I don't mean to sound like Tucker Carlson.
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Chapter 2: Who is responsible for determining trash can placement?
And then on most of the blocks, we put other garbage cans mid-block. We wanted to see if we have all these garbage cans, will there be less litter on the street? It was a lot of litter on that block, a lot of bus stops, transit stops there.
There were some pretty good reasons to think that more trash cans might mean less trash. For one thing, it just seems kind of intuitive. But also, there's this often-repeated story in the world of trash management about Walt Disney. He supposedly spent time watching visitors at Disneyland, and he observed that people would carry trash for about 30 steps before dropping it.
And so he placed trash cans every 30 steps. Now, it is not really clear if this story is true, but the basic principle has been backed up by research. Studies show that when trash cans are visible, closely spaced, and well-maintained, people typically throw less litter on the ground. But that is not really what Public Works found with their pilot in the Mission District.
We noticed that it really did not make that much of a difference at the end of the day. In some spots, there was less litter. In some spots, the litter was just the same. In some spots, it was more. Several times, I'd be out on the block watching or out on the street watching, and I'd literally see people standing at a bus.
Their bus comes, there'd be a garbage can five to ten feet from them, and they dump their candy bar wrapper on the ground.
I'm picturing you sort of out there, standing subtly off to the side, watching people at a bus stop, seeing someone drop a candy wrapper on the ground. It's reminding me of my children. I just watch them open a snack and then just leave the trash on our floor. What is the psychology behind that, where you're like, you know the bin is right there? What do you think is going on?
That's a good question. I mean, one of the things we've discussed a lot at Public Works is what would happen if we did not pick up the garbage? We don't want our city to look dirty and messy. So we will have street cleaners. We will go and pick up the trash. So it's in a way it's like a maid service at a hotel, right? You don't make your bed. Someone else comes in and makes it.
You throw down your candy wrapper. on the street of San Francisco, somebody's going to come by and eventually pick it up. So not everyone is a slob and a litter bug in San Francisco at all. But I have seen people pull into a parking space with very nice cars and they dump out their ashtray and the coffee cup and they put it on the curb and take it out of their car.
They don't want their car messy. They'll put it out on the sidewalk, and then someone from Public Works or another nonprofit will come by and clean it up.
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Chapter 3: What did the pilot program reveal about trash can effectiveness?
Where are you going to put it that it's not going to affect the common areas and really the public good? People don't want to see trash on their streets. People don't feel good about that. There are a lot of reasons why you don't want trash on the street. But a big one is how do you feel about your city and about your neighborhood if you see litter around?
The new cans are finally rolling out this summer, and honestly, they look great. They're so sleek. But as Rachel has made clear, you can design the perfect trash can and still have dirty streets. Litter in San Francisco isn't just a design problem.
It's a complex behavioral problem, caused by people dumping household garbage to dodge collection fees, and rummaging through bins because they have nowhere else to go, and illegally dumping, I'm going to say this number again, 18,000 tons of garbage on the streets a year. A better trash can is definitely a tool, and I'm sure it will help. But it's not going to fix it all.
We started this episode with a question.
Who determines the trash cans? Even how they get picked up? How are they maintained? How are they designed?
And we have a pretty good answer, at least for the nearly 3,000 trash cans on the city's sidewalks. They are overseen by San Francisco Public Works. The department installs, maintains, and repairs the trash cans. They prioritize placing cans in the busiest places, like in commercial areas and plazas, and near bus stops and other areas with a lot of foot traffic.
When it comes to putting out new trash cans, they take feedback from the public via 311 and requests from the Board of Supervisors. Sometimes they'll run pilot programs to see how more or differently designed trash cans might affect litter in a given area. So if you're ever wondering why it takes San Francisco a decade and half a million dollars to choose a trash can, now you know.
Consider this service request resolved. Today on the show, you heard Roman Mars. No further introduction needed. And you also heard Rachel Gordon, the director of policy and communications at San Francisco Public Works. Do you have a question about infrastructure that's been bugging you? Maybe it's something you walk past without really thinking about it, like...
A fire hydrant or a parking meter or a manhole cover? If there's a piece of infrastructure you've always wondered about, we want to hear from you. Send us your service requests by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest at 99pi.org. And remember, if you litter, a city worker like Rachel might be secretly watching and judging you.
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