How you get the public to pick up their trash and place the litter in commercial trash can
When it comes to commercial trash cans in open spaces there's an amazing paradox. People can find time to congregate in green areas or parks to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors, but when they leave, many can't seem to find the time to throw their garbage away.
For the most part, commercial garbage cans are right there. Highly visible.
So what's the thinking? Nature is nice but who wants to clean it up?
Or maybe, let the maintenance crew pick up my mess? That's what they get paid for, right?
Or, geez, I'm kind of tired from chasing a football or soccer ball all day, that big commercial garbage can over there sure seems far away.
Perhaps if I put enough arc on my shot, I can get my McDonald's wrapper in from here.
Come on, folks! This is serious.
In the US, it is estimated that each person generates about 4.5 pounds of trash per day. That's equal to 250 million tons generated by all of us annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
How do we keep this huge volume of refuse from hitting the ground, especially in green areas where we all like to relax and congregate?
In his obsession with making his amusement parks a great experience for families, Walt Disney reportedly conducted a study that determined a distance of 25 steps was about as far as people would walk to put garbage in a commercial trash receptacle.
After that, it's litter time.
What can be done about our national dilemma with debris?
Commercial trash cans with a different look
There is a solution that park and facility managers might consider.
Make discarding trash a fun thing to do.
Okay, you might ask, how do you do that? Stand there and offer $1 prize every time someone drops their 32-ounce soda cup in a can?
Of course not. But what about making commercial trash cans more interesting?
Commercial trash cans shaped like cartoon characters can encourage people, especially children, to discard their trash in receptacles
For example, there are "creature" commercial trash cans that are made to resemble a spider, octopus or a frog.
(The frog even displays a message, "Feed Me. I Love Litter.")
When people enter the area, they are immediately going to notice the different look of the cans. That's human nature -a sensory attraction to anything new or unique.
Immediately a site facility manager plants a suggestion in their heads: "Hey, our trash containers are fun. Don't forget us!"
Secondly, what better way for mothers and fathers to teach their children about the importance of keeping green spaces pristine than to encourage them to go over there and feed the smiling spider or fill up the friendly frog?
This is an enormous life lesson for a child. If you can emphasize to a young person the concept and importance of discarding rubbish in containers and ensuring that open spaces stay litter-free, you might just be creating an environmentally-oriented individual for life.
Imagine the impact this would have on the 300 million people who currently live in the United States. It's enormous.
Another strategy to use with commercial trash cans is to purchase the types that come with an option to insert an interchangeable panel.
That panel can hold the town's logo, or a hotel's name or a team's image.
But it can also contain a compelling message to make use of the trash can.
For example, you could feature a picture of your star player with a simple quote, "Big Joe Asks You To Be A Team Player! Make That Throw In The Right Place and Not On The Ground."
Commercial trash cans with a message can persuade people to use them
Or you could have school kids themselves draw images with their own messages advising their colleagues not to make a mess of the area. Talk to teachers. Make it a class project.
Images have impact.
What better opportunity does a facility or park have to make an impact with a creative strategy to get visitors to keep an area clean?
The beauty of the custom message is you can test different versions. Or you can continually change the message to retain top-of-mind awareness.
These strategies work. Remember the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign with the public service announcements featuring the crying Native-American?
That promotion and others from KAB are very effective. According to their latest report, their efforts resulted in the removal of 40 million pounds of litter. Forty-million!
They also cleaned up 81,000 miles of roads, streets and highways and cleansed up to 8,400 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines.
The image of that stoic man weeping by the side of the road as people tossed their trash out of the window was powerful. It stirred people's emotions. It motivated them to act.
You can do the same. Make your commercial trash cans fun or post an inspiring message.
Give people a reason to keep open spaces green and clean.
Mother Nature will certainly be appreciative, humanity in general will be grateful and your maintenance crew in particular will be thrilled.
To learn more about the "creature" commercial trash cans, click here.
To find out about the commercial "message center" trash receptacles, go here.
If you are interested in reading about the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign, click here.
You can obtain a free catalog displaying a huge variety of commercial trash cans manufactured from different materials including aluminum, powder-coated metal, recycled plastic, titanium resin alloy, wood, concrete, plastic-coated metal and more. To speak to a Park Catalog representative directly call 800-695-3503. You can also email them at [email protected]. If you need commercial garbage cans quickly, we have a ParkExpress program where trash receptacles can be shipped in just 1 day!