While at my local Post Office recently, when I went to throw away the paper off the postage labels from the stamps I purchased, I discovered that all the little trash slots under the workstations were screwed shut. When I asked the postal person where I might throw something away, he pointed to a trash bin at the end of the building.
Being slightly annoyed, I commented that when you have trash receptacles available people will be inclined to throw trash away properly. The postal person responded, “Well, people will put in all there trash from their car if we have receptacles around.” That startled me because I always 
thought that locations that have trash bins will have less litter.
Turns out that it is counterintuitive from the research. Places like Boston and New York City are experimenting with NO trash bins and the numbers are indicating that not as much money is spent cleaning up stations with NO trash bins as stations with trash bins. The idea is civic minded people will take their trash home with them.
Being a customer service minded person and anti-litter, I always believed that giving people the opportunity to do right they would and the research shows that even without trash bins, most people won’t litter.
What do you think? Are trash bins an answer or part of the problem? What is your business is trying to solve a problem that isn’t a problem? Maybe it is a Value Added. I’m just wondering. .. .
