Dumpster dips

Rachel sends this along: I'm not sure if it technically counts as a garbage receptacle anymore, but this is so damn cool: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/20/arts/design/20090720_POOL_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Amsterdam

Amsterdam airport and train station from Cécile:

Amsterdam Airport

They show little movies in the airport insisting on the fact that everybody should help recycling, and showing people using these recycling bins appropriately- I thought it was a good initiative :)

Amsterdam central train station

Holland

Thanks to Amanda Hooykaas for these photos from Holland:

"Both large and small towns... the entire box (90% is underground) gets lifted up and dumped into the truck as sorted goods... very clean... very organized."

Visual Appeal

The symbols, colours, shapes and images that remind us or attract us to these static objects in the landscape. Thanks for these photos sent from Tania!

Recycling bins from Singapore Changi Airport.

Recycling bins in Macau (China).

Garbage bins at Ocean Park in Hong Kong.

Shape and Design

Kitchener, Ontario. There was a boy sitting on the corner of the bottom part of this garbage can - reading and presumably waiting for a bus while pretending to be comfortable.

Guelph, Ontario. I'm not sure about this one. Maybe it's meant to stand out. Our eyes notice things that don't make sense?

Waterloo, Ontario. The picture on the bin means that the receptacle extends far below the ground - a design to minimize the number of times it is emptied.

Swiss and German Receptacles

Thanks to Cécile Henrot for sending this photo and description: "A picture of the kind of recycling bins you have in downtown Lausanne- they have this color code with red for aluminum, green for glass, yellow for plastics, blue for papers and gray for other garbage- and they "mix" the recycling bins together, this series shows all the colors but you can have various combinations:)"

This one is from Morges, a smaller municipality on the lake just west of Lausanne.

This one taken in Munich. I wonder how easy it is to empty those?

Littering the landscape.

oh the lengths we go to encourage people not to throw trash, recyclables, etc.!

don't litter at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario

Aside from poor packaging design (the package your product came in will far outlive the product itself), littering seems like a pretty trivial thing that we still can’t seem to wrap our heads around. My friends tell me about certain drink containers in India and piñatas in Mexico made of clay that are meant to be thrown and smashed and returned to the earth. This makes a lot of sense.

Fast-forward (or backward). Molded polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene... producer / industry responsibility and consumer blame, but mostly left for municipalities to clean up. Deliberately placed receptacles because we think convenience will solve the problem. Maybe.

Garbage can in Waterloo Park, Waterloo Ontario.

Street receptacles, Hamilton, Ontario.

Littering fines advertised on bins in Leeds. Photo from Tim.

Disposable plastic cup waste on sumac.

Junk sculpture (tires, metal and other garbage put together from objects found in the river) in Guelph, Ontario.

What could easily become litter when a streetside garbage can overflows on King Street in Waterloo, Ontario.

What began as a few litter-related photos got me thinking about anti-littering campaigns in general.

Here are a few notable ones:

The beginnings:

- “Keep Britain Tidy” (1954).

http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/

- “Keep America Beautiful” (1956).

http://www.kab.org

Of the most successful campaigns:

- Texas State, “Don’t Mess With Texas!” (1986).

http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org

The punishment campaign:

- Washington State, “Litter and it will hurt” / “Want to litter? Fine” (2001).

(This was also grouped with an anti-littering campaign targeted at truck drivers: “This is not your urinal”. Word has it that these ‘trucker bottles’ – a combination of urine, plastic bottles and the hot summer sun – were essentially exploding during roadside litter pick-ups.)

The environmental argument / cigarette litter:

- A Butt Free Australia (sponsored by big tobacco), “All roads lead to the ocean” (2003).

http://www.buttlitteringtrust.org/

An eye sore:

- Nova Scotia Environment, "The Best Thing You'll Never Do." (2008)

http://www.bestthingyoullneverdo.ca

And my personal favourite:

UnLitter Us Philly, “Street poets trash trash…” (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/user/UnLitterUsPhilly#p/u/8/A98so_Y7tZ8

No littering sign - Mexico

Singapore by Tania

Thanks to Tania Cheng for these great photos:

Recycling bin from Hong Kong international airport.

Recycling bin on the streets of Singapore.

Garbage can on Sentosa island (off Singapore).

Garbage can on the streets of Singapore.

As a side note, I've heard of Singapore as a 'fine' city - notorious for their anti-littering laws and undercover police handing out hefty fines for littering (and chewing gum on city streets and spitting and flower-picking). Punishment and behaviour change theory come to mind.