[bgentry]

I used to wonder what caused the crazy amount of litter in SF. After working in SOMA for years, I believe the vast majority is due to people rummaging through trash cans in search of food/recyclables/whatever, often dumping the entire contents directly onto the sidewalk. I've seen this more times than I can count.

More trash cans would be great, but they absolutely won't fix the problem when people regularly empty their contents onto the street.

[steve19]

There is a school of thought that less trash cans reduces litter. I am a little skeptical of the idea but I see the point.

[chrischen]

I generally see homeless people constantly littering, among leaving other things on the streets...

[jacobush]

In Japan, there are no trash cans and people take their litter with them.

In Disneyland, there was more litter until they put trashcans everywhere.

[greggman2]

And the have this subtle dystopian message on each one

"Waste Please"

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=Waste+Please+Dis...

[verall]

This is nonsense, there are plenty of public trash cans in Tokyo at least. Not on every corner like in the States, but within 2-3 blocks you can find one and plenty of establishments have no problem letting you use their trash can.

[dilap]

I think it’s mostly culture. Burning man has zero trash cans and pretty damn close to zero litter.

Living in SF is like living inside a garbage dump combined with a sewer. It’s insane.

[tarr11]

Maybe not...

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/burningman/amp/Burning-Man-gar...

[dilap]

Zero litter at the event, but yeah, some people are hella irresponsible w/ disposing of the trash after they've left the event. They're not just throwing it on the ground (that I've seen, anyway), but they're leaving it in any random trash can they can find, rather than paying to dump it (which there is ample opportunity to do -- a cottage industry springs up of people taking trash for $5 a bag post BM).

Probably burning man should just include end-of-event trash disposal in the ticket price, and have an official collection area people can dump their trash. (Probably some reluctance on BM part to do this 'cuz of the somewhat-inaccurate "radical self-reliance" principle.)