What do you want to throw your trash into? SFPW wants to know

This summer, San Francisco Public Works will place prototypes of our next generation public trash cans on the street for real-life testing at 52 locations in the city. Community members will have the opportunity to evaluate the cans and give input into the final selection.

A special website has been launched offering a survey and showing the location(s) of the trash cans. Go to sfpublicworks.org/trashcanpilot

During the 60-day test period, custom and off-the-shelf models will be placed in neighborhoods around the City. Each prototype can will have a QR code affixed to its exterior. The QR code will connect people to an online survey. Also, Public Works will be promoting the web address for the survey through social media and other communications outlets. In addition, staff from Public Works, nonprofit organizations and Recology who maintain, clean and empty the cans will be polled for their input. Public Works then will review and assess this information and land on a final design for the new City can.

We have 26 cans per installation with two installations of approximately 30 days each.

We looked for geographical dispersal so that every district has at least two cans per installation, and every neighborhood gets at least one can.

We prioritized locations that were on busy commercial corridors and at bus stops.

Cans need to be placed where there are existing cans. This will ensure that the data we collect is not impacted by new locations that have new associated behaviors.

We’ve generally avoided putting cans in community benefit districts. This is because those cans get daily maintenance and will skew our data.