I think it's a combination of ignorance and apathy compounded by bad design. Make it easy and obvious so people don't have to stop to figure out which bin is for what. I think that the combined Recycling / Compost / Trash bins - http://www.econewmexico.com/public-composting-bin - in San Francisco's Ferry Building are a great example of better design promoting recycling and composting

The sign said, "Put Litter in its Place", so I threw it on the ground. That's where litter lives, right?
Bad signage on the photo above.

How about "all of the above?"

Most of the trash here is obviously newspapers, probably the free ones that aren't worth wrapping fish in.

That aside, there's no bin that says "Newspapers only". That one might get used more often if it were clearly marked.

Here in Vancouver, we have bins clearly marked "Newspapers Only" at every Skytrain station for recycling those free papers. Unfortunately, lots of people still put other trash in them. Not as much other trash as the regular bins, but plenty enough to ruin the contents for recycling. One half-full slurpee does the trick. This can either be ignorance, apathy, or malice. Some people are just assholes, you know?

Likewise, around here we also have separate "garbage" and "bottles only" bins in a lot of the malls, especially their food courts. In spite of the fact that the bottles only bins have smaller round holes suitable only for bottles and cans, plenty of garbage goes in them too. And it's certainly not because the other bin is full either, they get emptied every hour or therabouts. At least the bottles are washable.

If you've ever dealt with the public at large, you would know that there's plenty of people out there that are stupid, lazy, or just plain mean. Even the best design can't fix those problems.

As someone who has spent a long time teaching and coaching, I am a strong believer in solutions rather than blame. Yes, I think most people are capable of deciphering the system, but they aren't going to. We could point the finger at them, call them illiterate, ignorant, apathetic, whatever you like. The fact remains that they are that way and that is not something that is going to change without effort. That effort can start anywhere, and these trash cans are as good a place to start as any. Make it completely obvious. Simple, good quality visual cues, including both words and pictures. Cues that you don't have to pause for, that you see in the 2 seconds it takes you to glance at the trash can to ensure your item ends up inside. If they cared enough to carry it to the trash can, such a cue can make them care enough to put it in the right one.

It is poor design, but I agree that it is also ignorance and apathy... people who are too much of a hurry to pay attention.

On campus at my university, the recycling bins have better design that is really hard to mess up-- paper bins have green tops and a long slit just long enough for newspapers, about an inch wide. The drink bins have blew tops and circular holes just big enough for bottles and cans.

But even with such a straightforward design, you can't guarantee that lazy people won't just throw everything in the trash...

bad design!

The best urban recycling bins are ones where the shape of the hole is similar to the article that you recycle in each bin, (a slot for paper, round hole for cans, square hole for other trash) combined with color changes which distinguish between each one. (brown for trash, blue for paper, green for glass/aluminum, etc...)

if you are walking parallel to this bin there is little to indicate where the item you are discarding is supposed go! Plus the signs are overly complicated, and the graphics are way to small. If you don't speak English, there no apparent difference between each bin from a distance!

The ad's on these cans show that they have more to do with making some organization feel good about its self than anything else!

there has been success in separating the recycling and garbage bins into different areas, but the verdict is still out on that one.

Bad design. I don't know how busy those stations will get, but if there's lots of people then the text will be obscured, and there's no way to tell which circle is which from the top. And are the two recycling bins for the same stuff anyway? They both have blue bags.

1) Have bright colours for each bin, e.g. black for non-recyclables, and other colours for other bins. Make these consistent! Or, if everything is sorted, just use bright green.

2) Big, obvious signs! "PAPER" "PLASTIC BOTTLES" "CANS" "GLASS" etc. Have a picture too, but the words should come first -- for the 99% of people that can read and understand them, these words are quicker and easier to understand than trying to work out what the pictogram is. If the bins are open foreign tourists etc can probably recognise what to put where by what's already there anyway!

Is there a standard for recycling bin colours? Maybe there should be!

The majority of people just don't care. For them it's a big achievement not to litter where they stand right away.

The real problem apears to be that there isn't enough space for everything. For example, in my dormroom, the garbage rooms that didn't have enough room for everything had a lot more reycleables in the garbage and vice versea than did the ones with sufficent amount of space in the garbage.

When will whoever creates these bins realise you can't see the signs saying what is what when you are standing next to it? Nobody wants to walk a few paces away or crouch down to find out.

Put the signs on the top and don't bother with litter or recycle, just say what goes where. Plastic bottles, Cans, Glass, Paper, Food, Remainder :)

[)amien

People in Toronto aren't used to separating recyclables into 2 categories (it all gets mixed together) so the blue/grey associations and the separations aren't as obvious as in other parts of the country. (For that matter, is the recycling going to a facility that requires it to be sorted? I'd bet it's not.)

Add to that the fact that these bins are often full to overflowing.

Plus you have to look at the side of the bin (which takes too much effort if you're standing right beside it).

So yes, apathy is a component of the problem, but the bad design encourages it.

Many people don't understand about recycling. It reminds me of how some dog owners where I live collect dog defecation in small plastic bags and then leave these on the path in the park or hanging like xmas decorations from trees. It would have been better to just not even clean up after their dog - at least that would disolve away faster.

It's ignorance, illiteracy, apathy, AND bad design.

People are inherently lazy, if you give them anyway to mistake something, they will.

I've gotta go with "bad design"... but I've never seen a great design for recycling. As "The Design of Everyday Things" argues, good design allows the desired action to be the easiest action to take. Resorting to labels means the design has failed. And memory is unpredictable.

So, how about a cage for newspapers with a faux newspaper attached to the bottom. It's obvious that bottles will fall out, so you put them in the next bin. And there's really no way to get people to keep the trash out of there all the time, so the bin needs to sort. Shaking the bin, the light bottles should rise to the top and be skimmed off into their compactor/container, while waste goes the other direction.

I voted bad design because it likely plays a role and most reasonable to expect to change.

Unless there is something on top, I imagine most people can't see it when standing right next to it.

Our cans at work have a long slot on top for newspapers, the one for cans is a round circle, and the bottles is a goofy shaped like a coke bottle can. Don't have to read to know which is which.

people are just plain LAZY! Solar powered automated sorters. But who will pay for that????

It's clearly not paying attention... but, poor signage just makes it easier for people not to pay attention. But, after picking up recycling/trash for 20 minutes I'm just surprised it's not on the ground. I think we need clear and more universal standards. My state just went to single stream recycling at homes because I think they got a lot of cross contamination. Maybe that's the answer... because no matter what you want, you get single stream.

I do most of my recycling by curbside.
All my city asked was to put paper in a plastic bag but even we don't do that, we just bunch all the paper together and put in along with everything else.
I"m just glad some cities have recycling stations throughout the city, that's pretty cool.

The signs aren't at eye level, there's no way to distinguish the bins at a glance from above you would have to approach them. Even if you always recycle you could confuse the three of them if you were walking past in a hurry. Even though apathy is huge this only makes it more difficult.

There are methods to automatically separate paper, plastic, glass, cans, tin. They are used by some municipalities (like London for example). They should be more widespread. You just need two bins, litter and recycling (if you are not separating food waste).