A overflowing city trash can at the corner of Irving Street and 11th Avenue has a halo of litter, including oozing to-go containers, soggy coffee cups, and even a wall mirror (Hannah Woodworth | Peninsula Press).
In 2022, San Francisco announced plans to replace the city’s nearly 2,900 trash cans with custom-designed stainless steel bins. Nearly three years later, old cans still remain, and it may take another two years before the new ones appear on the streets.
“This is going to be a wide timeline,” said Rachel Gordon, the director of policy and communication at the Department of Public Works. “Hopefully in a year or two years, we will have the new trash cans out.”
The trashcan project is now in a contracting and procurement phase, Gordon said, but the exact timeline for the project remains unclear.
DPW paused the rollout initiative in January 2024 when former San Francisco Mayor London Breed ordered city departments to cut their budgets by 10% over the next two fiscal years. For DPW, this meant reducing spending by about $9.7 million during that period.
With each new trash can estimated to cost between $2,800 and $3,500, replacing all of the city’s trash cans could exceed $10 million., Now, the estimated cost could rise beyond $3,500 per trash can because of President Trump’s tariff plans on foreign goods, Gordon said.
In 2022, the Department of Public Works conducted a $550,000 pilot program to determine the design of new trash cans to replace the current bins. The two-decade-old trash cans had become “easy targets of scavengers,” the department said at the time. The purpose of this pilot program was to design a trash can that prevents people from rummaging through them, as well as being resistant to vandalism and break-ins.
After a 60-day prototype test of three designer trash cans, the department announced that Slim Silhouette would be the new public trash can. Its elevated openings and snorkel design make it difficult for people to rummage through, according to a DPW 2022 press release.
When people rummage through a trash can to find valuable items to use or sell, they often leave debris scattered around the bin. As a result, San Franciscans report these bins as “overflowing” and request cleanup through the city’s 311 system, Gordon said.
“One of the biggest problems when you see overflowing trash cans is that it’s not that the trash can is filled up and there is no room in it,” Gordon said. “It’s that someone has rummaged through it and taken everything out, looking for that treasure or a bottle.”
Overflowing city garbage trash cans” was one of the most reported non-emergency issues in San Francisco in 2024, with over 97,000 reports that year, an analysis of the city’s 311 data shows.
Click on the image above to see an interactive map of San Francisco’s overflowing trash cans in 2024
These requests are handled by Recology, a private waste management company that holds an exclusive contract for public waste collection in the city.
Recology empties public trash cans every day—more than 1 million times a year. Bins in high-traffic areas, such as Union Square, are emptied three to four times daily, according to the company. The company is also responsible for cleaning up around the can.
Passerbyers attempt to throw away their coffee cups at an overflowing trash can on the corner of Irving Street and 11th Avenue in the Inner Sunset neighborhood. (Hina Suzuki | Peninsula Press).
Veronica Palmer, a 22-year-old who has lived in San Francisco for over three years, often sees people on the streets rummaging through public trash cans during her commute. The mess they leave behind can contribute to the city feeling ‘dirty,’ she said.
But she said taxpayers’ money should not go toward DPW’s initiative to replace the current trash cans with rummage-resistant ones. Instead, she said the funds should be used to help people on the streets, focusing on addressing the reasons they need to rummage in the first place.
She added that the city should fund mental health programs, shelters, and addiction recovery services.
‘It’s like putting a Band-Aid over a crack,’ Palmer said. ‘If these people are on the streets, the trash is the least of my concerns.'”
The issue of the overwhelming number of overflowing trash can reports can also be linked to illegal dumping by businesses – or customers – disposing of their trash in public bins.
Palmer, a resident on Clement Street in the Richmond neighborhood , said she often sees restaurant employees neatly folding cardboard boxes and placing them in or next to the trash cans on the street.
On Irvine Street in the Inner Sunset neighborhood, a trash can in front of a sandwich shop was reported more than 300 times in 2024 for overflowing.
An employee at Irving Subs, the sandwich shop, shared his theory behind the culprit: the UPS store next door. He said that deconstructed boxes and other trash from the UPS store are often placed near the bin, and since they don’t fit inside the container, they are left next to it. He did not give his name.
However, Angela, the owner of that UPS store, said that the real issue lies within the customers who pick up their packages and then dispose of the packing materials in the trash can. She declined to provide her last name.
“If customers are making an Amazon return, we do not have the space to take their box,” Angela said. “We make allowances for the elderly or disabled who cannot take the box home.” But that is the exception.
The store does not have the “capacity” to take customers’ trash, she added. In addition, the UPS store would be charged if their own recycling bin overflows.
“We have to be really careful not to overflow our blue bin,” Angela said. “It can easily fill to the top.”
Of the 45 trash cans that received more than 100 reports to 311 for overflowing in 2024, at least three are within 500 feet of a UPS store.
The next step in the city’s new trash can rollout is developing a proposal for their manufacturing, Gordon said. In addition to being rummage-resistant, the cans will be equipped with sensors that notify Recology when they are 80% full. They will also be designed for easier emptying by Recology collectors and feature a graffiti-resistant coating.
“We are never going to get the perfect, absolute, tamper-proof garbage can in San Francisco, but we think we can get closer,” Gordon said.
