trash cans

There seems to be fewer and fewer around public places these days. Are they just asking people to litter? There’s a shopping center around in my area that has no trash cans at all outside.

I heard that the Magic Kingdom, there is a trash can every thirty steps. Apparently, a person will hold on to their trash for thirty steps before littering.

I will agree with you though, since the number of trash cans outside has declined.

I never really noticed that. There are some people that will litter anyway. I was pretty good about not littering, but sometimes I did slight littering. A few years ago when I was a teenager I smoked (I since quit) and always threw my cigarette butt on the ground even though there was an ashtray right there, I just thought it was cool to flick it on the ground (I know that was stupid, and smoking obviously was stupid). Once in a while I left a fast food cup on the ground next to my car, but usually I looked for a trash can.
My 17 year old brother Tyler always litters, he is usually a very polite kid but for some reason he likes to litter. And he usually leaves his fast food tray on the table, he said if the employees were really nice to him he will pick it up, but otherwise he leaves it. Last weekend I was back I Iowa and I was with him at a fast food place, on the way out he was nice enough to wait several seconds to hold the door open for someone, but in the parking lot he walked right past a trash can but threw his cup on the ground. I think he would learn his lesson, he threw an empty pack of cigarettes out the window of his car and it landed right on the hood of a police car next to him that he didn’t notice! He got ticketed for littering and underage smoking. I wish I was there to see the look on his face when he seen what he did. He already got kicked off the hockey team for smoking on school grounds and at a school sponsored event, hopefully the ticket will get him to stop smoking and littering.

I will admit that when I was younger and sometimes if the the trash is small enough, I will throw it out my car window.

It seems like more and more people are bound and determined to walk right by the appropriate trash receptacles and throw it on the ground instead. (Maybe they’re trying to be “cool”?) Also they are opting to throw their nasty cigarette butts in everybody’s yards. What is happening to this country? Some of us try to recycle and reuse and all of that, but these people are completely cancelling it out by littering literally every chance they get even where there is a trash can available. :frowning:
These businesses not having trash cans available is just going to make it worse.

Go to any Cedar Fair park and you’ll find a garbage can EVERYWHERE.

About a week ago I was at work (working for an electrical contractor) installing some lights outside a restaurant. They had a cigarette butt disposal pedestal near the doors. A few cars pulled in packed with teenagers, they had high school jackets on from their baseball team, it must have been after a practice. It was a shame to see that about half of them were smoking. But it was good to see that most of them waited in line at the cigarette butt disposal pedestal and deposited their cigarette butts there. Although one kid flicked his cigarette butt right at my boss’s tools, the kid apologized to my boss right away, he said he didn’t realize where he was flicking it.

There is actually a robotic talking trash can that moves around and talks to guests at the Magic Kingdom, it is called PUSH. It is controlled by an employee in the crowd.

I used to LOVE this thing!

that is cool

It would be good if public places not only had trash cans, but also recycle bins. I don’t see any recycle bins at public places. You have to throw recyclables in the trash.

I believe there is a security concern about contraband (including bombs) being hidden in them.

I’ve been seeing some pop up. They look like trash cans but have ~6" holes on 3 sides to insert different recyclables.

I know. My college has recycle containers throughout the building. I hate to throw things out that can be recycled. Think about all the plastic and aluminum containers that are consumed. Next to every trash can there should be a recycle container, unless they process the trash in a way to remove recyclables.

My college has designated smoking areas away from the building that also has the pedestals near them.

Now if they are trying to make people quit smoking then why do they have designated smoking areas?!?

Good point, but kids that smoke are going to smoke anyway. When I was in high school we got to leave for lunch, so we smoked in the car. At the community college I went to there was a smoking section that they were talking about eliminating. My first 2 years in college I smoked, I smoked there between classes quite often. I was thinking that the kids will smoke anyway, they would smoke in their cars, then they would throw their cigarette butts, empty cigarette packs, cups, food wrappers, etc. on the ground but if there was a smoking section with trash cans they would end up throwing their cigarette butts in the ashtrays and their trash in the trash cans. I think there should be a smoking section, but away from the doors so the smoke won’t bother or harm anyone else. I heard that they used to allow smoking inside some colleges, now that was bad!, even during the time I smoked I agreed indoor smoking should not ever be allowed, and most other kid smokers agreed.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/injuries-apparent-dry-ice-disneyland-blast-19276414#.UabRBJzNmpw

Funny that we should talk about this…

As for smoking, I’ve heard of high schools that put smoke detectors in their restrooms to catch people smoking in there. I don’t think they are very effective though. The smoker could easily just remove the battery.

Do you mean smoke alarms?

I don’t think they would do that. They wouldn’t be catching anyone. It would just waste time, waste the resources of the fire department, and the student would just easily walk outside. If the school wanted to catch someone, have a smoke detector in the room is not the way to go. There is also paperwork that has to be filled out, and money that has to be paid for a new detector to be installed.

As for smoke alarms, I have never heard of one being installed in a restroom before. I guess some schools might have done that.

My middle school had smoke detectors in the restroom, but it was probably just to detect, hmm, a fire. They weren’t the new detectors that were installed a couple years back.

Yes, smoke alarms installed in the restrooms. Which are not very effective. The smoker can easily just remove the battery.

Oh, my school doesn’t do that. Although, if the student doesn’t notice it, and if it is mounted up high, it could be effective. They would have to get ionization smoke alarms, though.