The city’s Public Works Department announced today that the “Slim Silhouette” model will be the new public trash can. The silvery-gray bin, made from stainless steel pipes, with a curved top, is meant to discourage graffiti and piling of trash atop the bin.
It stood out from six designs tested and discussed over the past summer. Three prototypes, including “Slim Silhouette,” faced public criticism over their hefty price tags: The “slim” prototype ran some $18,800, which is decidedly fat. But city officials said the bins will be more cost-efficient when mass-produced, and some design tweaks will be made. Somehow, the price is now gauged to be between $2,000 and $3,000 a can.
Among the cans in the running, only the $20,900 “Soft Square” model was more expensive. The most economic receptacle was the Wire Mesh, which ran $630.
The prototypes
The off-the-shelf models
The new “slim” can has a separated opening for bottles and cans, which makes it easy to deposit and collect, and so serves as an anti-rummaging feature. It also accommodates a sensor that will send alerts when nearing trash capacity.
After being tested in 52 city locations over the summer, feedback was collected from the public, graffiti abatement and maintenance staff, as well as Recology crews who empty the cans. Public Works received 1,000 online surveys in total and conducted several discussions at in-person community events.
Mission Local’s analysis of 800 surveys by Aug. 22 showed that the “Slim Silhouette” was the most acceptable design by the public. More than 60 percent voted for “love it” and “it’s okay”.
The Salt & Pepper and Slim Silhouette
prototypes currently lead the pack.
Love it
Not at all impressed
It’s okay
Salt &
Pepper
Slim
Silhouette
BearSaver
Wire Mesh
Soft
Square
Ren
Bin
50
20
30
40
60
90
10
70
80
100
0
% survey responses
The Salt & Pepper and
Slim Silhouette prototypes
currently lead the pack.
Love it
Not impressed
It’s okay
Salt &
Pepper
Slim
Silhouette
BearSaver
Wire Mesh
Soft
Square
Ren
Bin
20
40
60
80
100
0
% survey responses
Top positives
Top negatives
Shape
Opening too small
Overall look
Other
Materials
Trash outside
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Responses
Responses
Top positives
Shape
Overall look
responses
Materials
0
10
20
30
40
50
Top negatives
Opening too small
Other
Trash outside
responses
0
10
20
30
40
50
Note: This chart reflects the survey results by Aug. 22, after 80 percent were back. It didn’t include responses in which no option was selected. Feedback for other designs are available here. Graphics designed by Will Jarrett.
While people loved its overall look and construction, the top concerns focused on the small openings, and the trash piling up outside the can.
That’s a shade ominous, as one of the major hopes for the “slim” can would lead to less trash on the street. The city’s current much-maligned “Renaissance” bins can be an easy target for scavengers who rummage through them and leave a mess behind.
Public Works said some adjustments would be made in the process of manufacturing the Slim Silhouette, including the size of the opening, the on-the-can messaging for the recycling exchange, and the specific locking mechanism.
The next steps are to identify the funding sources and move through all necessary approval processes; for instance, the City’s Civic Design Review Committee and the Historic Preservation Commission.
Ms. Jiang,
I cleaned Clarion ‘Gallery’ Alley for year as project.
Tried to get Mayor’s office to replace Porta Potty they removed at Mission end.
No luck.
People continued to crap all over the place under the Lefty murals.
Cops across street threw horse poop on them.
I finally pulled all the weeds and put them in big compost heap for people to use.
After couple months the Alley was clean and I had compost complete w/worms.
Used it to fill potholes topped with bit of concrete.
Total cost to City was Zero.
Mural co-mgr told me to get my ‘xxxx’ out of her Alley.
lol
Life is strange sometimes.
Go Niners !!
h.
what many people don’t understand is in many areas of SF having a public trash can is a PITA because of the demographics: too many junkies, deranged persons, mentally challenged people, etc.
we always had a trash can on our corner in lower nob hill and every other day it’s a mess.
now, after they did the sidewalk widening for muni’s sake, DPW placed the Slim model on the corner. the trash accumulation next to the can is just not abating. and some really crazy folks pull out all the dog shit bags out of the receptacle. why???
that was the main reason why trash cans got taken off the streets.
Tokyo doesn’t have any trash cans on the streets at all and you don’t find any trash anywhere. well, they keep those who cannot be responsible for themselves off the streets in locked facilities.
a little while ago we talked to immigrants from the yucatan. they could not believe how dirty SF is in comparison to Meridá.
We still have 30% fewer bins than before Newsom was Mayor and removed thousands. Number of bins and frequency of service are the two factors that will move the needle on trash.
I’m usually for going cheap, but the wire mesh is too easy to access by crazy folks looking for treasure. I’m shocked they made the right decision as this can deters dumpster diving the most and doesn’t look like crap. People will find a way to tag it, but you can’t avoid that part. Let’s see how many of the “trash full indicators” are broken in a year’s time as that seems inevitable…..
If you sort the list by combined “OK” and “Love it”, the second highest is the wire mesh at 1/30th the price. If DPW would just put enough of them, and collect the trash from the cans instead of letting them overflow, we’d be a whole lot better off. That DPW suggest paying more for a trash can will solve the litter problem is ludicrous, worse is that anyone falls for it. City of SF: a fool and his money are soon parted.
Typical SF. The wire mesh trashcan that costs about 1/5 what this Gilded Age toy costs did exactly as well in “It’s OK’ responses. What more could one ask from a trashcan than to be OK?
This city is still being run as if we are printing our own money.
The kind of trash can doesn’t matter if a) there are too few of them as there are now and b) if no one picks up the trash in and around the cans as what happens/or not now. Instead of focusing on design, focus on DPW contract with Recology. How much does the city pay the company for how much work? The city is a trash dump and it pays a private monopoly to do the work. Is there a relationship?
Are these as valuable as a say, a catalytic converter?