Remember those controversial trash cans whose prototype price raised eyebrows and spurred headlines circa four years ago? Well, they are back in the news because they will be coming, soon-ish, to a street corner near you.
Yes, it was back in the second summer of the pandemic, July 2021, when news arrived that the SF Board of Supervisors had greenlighted a project from the Department of Public Works to get custom prototype designs fabricated for new trash cans for the city's sidewalks. This would not have been a major story were it not for the fact that the prototypes were being estimated to cost $20,000 apiece, and as we were still in the midst of the fallout from Mohammed Nuru's lavish-spending days at DPW, people were rightly alarmed that the city would spend so much on new trash cans.
It turned out that the prototypes, several of which were tested on the city's streets a year later, ended up costing $12,000 apiece to fabricate. And everyone was careful to explain that the ultimate cost per can, once mass production started, would be far lower — likely close to what the average, off-the-shelf, commercial street recepticle retails for, which the city says is around $3,000.
Ultimately, the winning design was identified, and it is dubbed Slim Silhouette. And here we are, three years hence, and we're hearing that production is getting started, and we could see the first cans appear on streets by year-end.
Now, these are not just wire baskets you throw your coffee cup into. These are pretty solid-looking but sleek, stainless steel trash cans with two holes, one for trash and one for recycling, each of which goes into a separate bin locked inside, accessible to Recology employees for emptying.
The Chronicle reports that, despite the city's budget deficit woes, this project never entirely died (though it did seem on permanent pause as of January 2024). And now, Department of Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon tells the paper that the department has been hard at work finding a vendor who can fabricate 3,000 of these cans for about $3,000 apiece, keeping them in budget.
And, Gordon adds, another pilot program is in the works to continue testing the models, after tweaks were made to the design following the 2022 test.
"We want to put out a limited number right away to test them, to see if they’re working,” Gordon tells the Chronicle. "Once we have contact with a manufacturer, we’re hopeful it will fall within our planned budget."
Gordon suggests that the first new cans could hit the streets later this year or early next.
As SFist noted in March, city officials have had a longstanding debate about these street trash cans and their efficacy. Most seem to agree that the round, antique-looking, 90s-era models are bad — and they basically encourage the stealing of recycling. But back in 2007 when Gavin Newsom was mayor, he floated a theory that an excess of trash cans was leading to more litter on the streets, and he ordered the former collection of 4,500 to be reduced by about half.
Ten years later, under Mayor Ed Lee, the cans' numbers rose again to around 3,000. But recently elected supervisor Danny Sauter says this isn't enough, and he says that his busy district, which includes North Beach, wants to see more cans installed.
Obviously, the old cans need to get replaced first, and we'll see down the line if anyone sees fit to spend money on an additional set of cans.
