$20,000 trash cans? S.F. looks to roll out costly prototypes for pilot on street corners

SF Chronicle ^ | 7-23-21 | Mallory Moench

[dynachrome]

San Francisco elected officials struggling to deal with complaints about garbage piling up on the city’s sidewalks and streets have been waiting three years for a solution — only to get sticker shock when they heard the details this week.

Addressing the problem requires a good trash can, but on Wednesday, a committee of the Board of Supervisors wrestled with how to replace many substandard bins when it learned that a batch of new, custom-made design prototypes will cost $12,000 to $20,000 apiece.

When mass-produced, the cost per can will drop to an estimated $2,000 to $3,000. Still, supervisors balked at the price to get there.

[Fester Chugabrew]

We’ve seen those grinders that can chew up anything. Include one that floats, and that grinds to a fine pulp. When container is full, aperture closes. Problem: easy way to shred evidence, or shred what was inadvertently discarded.

[gitmo]

Or grind up a child’s arm. Or a homeless person.

[xp38]

Just the kind of style Agent 13 of the old get smart show would hang out in.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

They can get trash cans that cost $1 million each - the heroin and fentanyl addicts that populate SF streets will never use them.

[Sequoyah101]

Nobody is stupid enough to pay that much for a trash can, are they?

[libertylover]

There is so much packed into those two sentences about everything wrong with a bloated, unaccountable, out of control government.

Ain't it the truth?

[antidemoncrat]

That also works.

[Mopp4]

Looks stylish but it still needs to be emptied. So how is this solving the problem??? Unless, for $20K it’s vaporizing the garbage as soon as it enters.....

[Pollard]

For $20k it should be converting the trash into energy and powering a nearby streetlight.

[Samurai_Jack]

No amount of money is going to compensate for the human condition. Unless everyone feels like they have ownership then it will always be a trashpit. No matter how much you spend on trash cans people will not use them if they dont feel like either a) they have an ownership stake in the appearance of the city or b) there’s a penalty involved with soiling the pretty landscapes they’re trying to create.

In San Fransicko currently the political climate disallows either of those options. Everyone feels like they pay sufficient taxes that the government should come clean up after them. And Nobody wants to exact a penalty or any kind of enforcement on the population.

So it’s a waste of resources.

[Billthedrill]

We have to be patient. It takes time to decide which politician’s family’s company to reward with the contract, and who has to be paid off to make it happen.

[catnipman]

leave it to leftist, woke morons to come up with $3,000 garbage cans ...

[Uncle Lonny]

Good enuf fer government work.