Dustbin Photography

Origins

French

Legislation surrounding waste receptacles is first introduced in France in an 1883 prefectural order signed by Eugène Poubelle, from whose name the French word for a waste receptacle comes. This order mandated the provision and collection of waste bins to each household in Paris. These bins were specified as having to be between 80-120 litres in volume and having a handle and a lid[citation needed]. Three waste bins were to be allocated for each household in order to sort refuse from reclaimable fibres such as paper and cloth and other reusable materials like ceramics, glasses and oyster shells.[3]

English

Legislation setting out the responsibilities for the provision and collection of "receptacles for the temporary deposit and collection of dust ashes and rubbish" by local authorities in Britain were first set out in the Public Health Act 1875.[4] However, this did not mandate the use of them, leaving the decision to offer the service to local government instead.

Household collection

Household waste container (specifically, a wheelie bin) in Berkshire, England
In many cities and towns, there is a public waste collection service which regularly collects household waste from outside buildings. The waste is loaded into a garbage truck and driven to a landfill, incinerator or crush facility to be disposed of.
In some areas, each household has multiple bins for different categories of rubbish (usually represented by colours) depending on its suitability for recycling, which will instead be routed to a recycling center.[5]
Roadside waste collection is often done by mean of larger metal containers of varying designs, mostly called dumpsters in the US, and skips in the UK.

Public collection

International symbol "Tidyman" used on packaging to remind people to dispose of it in a bin instead of littering
Public areas such as parks, often have litter bins placed to improve the social environment by encouraging people not to litter. Such bins in outdoor locations or other busy public areas are usually mounted to the ground or wall to discourage theft, and reduce vandalism, and to improve their appearance are sometimes deliberately artistic or cute.[6][7] In dense urban areas, trash is stored underground below the receptacle.[8] Many are lined with a plastic or paper bin bag to help contain liquids.

Metaphors

The term "garbage can" is also used for a model of decision making, the "Garbage Can Model" of decision making. It is concerned with cases of decision making in great aggregate uncertainty which can cause decisions to arise that from a distant point of view might seem irrational.

A "trash can" metaphor is often used in computer operating system desktop environments as a place files can be moved for deletion.

In a workplace setting, a bin may be euphemistically called "the circular file", "the round file" or "the janitor's file". Whereas useful documents are filed in a filing cabinet, which is rectangular, junk mail and other worthless items are "filed" in the bin, which is often round.

The term "wastebasket" is occasionally used in taxonomy to refer to less formal (and often paraphyletic) groupings that pose problems in classification (e.g., the proposed order Insectivora is considered a "wastebasket taxon", as it groups small mammals that do not fit nicely into other taxa), and the Nilo-Saharan language family is sometimes called "Greenberg's wastebasket", as it was a grouping made by him to fit the languages of Africa that did not fall into the other groups, Afroasiatic, Niger–Congo and Khoisan.
Source

References

Government of Hong Kong. "Civil Service Bureau".
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2004), Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, Taylor & Francis, p. 423, ISBN 978-1-57958-380-4
Jaggard, David (9 November 2010). "Waste Management in France: A History of the "Poubelle"". Paris Update. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
Government of the United Kingdom. "Public Health Act 1875, Section 45 (as enacted)".
"Rubbish and recycling" Archived 2016-06-12 at the Wayback Machine, ccc.govt.nz
Advertising On Trash Cans, Waste Receptacles, Recycle Bine - Custom trash cans with logos - YouTube, archived from the original on 2021-11-17
trash can advertising recycle bins advertising solutions
Shendruk, Amanada (5 August 2018). "Could NYC solve its trash problem with underground trash cans?". Quartz (publication). Retrieved 5 September 2018.