System #11: Cleaner Cities

Cities in the United States, like many across the globe, are rich with shared spaces—places that are used by all of us. From the busy streets and sidewalks to serene riversides and parks, these communal areas form the heartbeat of urban life. But that raises an important question: Who's truly responsible for taking care of these shared portions of our city? The easy answer might be the city government. But if we dig a little deeper, aren’t we, as residents and citizens, just as much a part of "the city"? Aren't we, too, stewards of the spaces we all share?

How Cities Keep Themselves Clean

Cities, powered by your tax dollars, often hand off the responsibility of maintaining public spaces to contractors. It’s pretty straightforward when it comes to parks, which have clear boundaries and are easily managed. Their task? To ensure that the park is clean, inviting, and ready for residents to enjoy. The same goes for our roads, with crews assigned to keep them in good shape. But what about those forgotten spaces—the places that aren’t private property and fall outside the city's maintenance contracts?

That’s where volunteers step in. These community heroes gather with trash bags in hand, sometimes armed with fancy trash pickers, and tackle neglected spots like riverbanks, streams, and highways. After hours of hard work, the result is stunning, but fleeting. Eventually, the litter returns, and the cycle begins again.

But imagine if we could break that cycle. What if we found a way to preserve these spaces, keeping them clean without the need for constant intervention? What if we could shift from temporary fixes to lasting solutions that ensure our communal spaces remain beautiful all the time?

Disneyland

Walt Disney, when he was opening his park, knew he didn't want Disneyland to be dirty and smelly like all the other theme parks he had visited. So he decided to put some brain power behind it.

He knew that if he needed trash to be picked up, he could either hire people to pick up the trash, or make it easier for people to dispose of their own trash. Anticipating attendance to his park would grow, he didn't want a solution that that became increasingly complex and expensive as it grew. So he decided to place the problem at the hands of the people by having more trash cans.

The first thing he had to tackle, though, was that trashcans were smelly. At that time, the normal design used in amusement parks with a lid on top hadn't been invented. Walt set out to invent them, putting them into practice in his parks. He actually tried selling this new design to manufacturers, but nobody wanted it. Fortunately, he didn't patent it, so people later caught on to its genius.

This invention, however, allowed him to tackle the next part. He conducted some research to figure out when trashcans were needed. He found out that, apparently, within 30 ft of ordering food, people usually needed to throw away their trash. So he made a rule in Disneyland that trashcans couldn't be more than 30ft away from one another. Today, that's changed to having a trashcan within eye-sight, but there's a genius in what he did. Instead of hiring a larger crew to nanny everyone as they dropped their trash on the ground requiring it to be picked up, he allowed people to do what they had been taught, which is to find a trash can to throw their trash away. By removing the resistance to doing the right thing, his theme parks became known for their cleanliness.

By removing the resistance to doing the right thing, [Walt's] theme parks became known for their cleanliness.

A Day in the Life

I went on a walk the other day, and noticed some bits of trash. Seeing how I had free hands, I decide to pick them up. I ended up having to carry that trash for 15 minutes before I got to a place that I could throw them away! Not only that, but along the way was much more trash than I could have feasibly carried. Here I was, someone that wanted to help, but even my simple action became almost untenable.

How much time do we dedicate in our city to cleaning them, when it would have taken so much less time to make it more accessible to help keep it clean. It would be so much easier when we do have trash, to be able to easily find a place to throw it away. You might be thinking to yourself, "all the destinations that I end up parking at have trashcans, like the gas station, school, restaurant, or sports fields," and maybe they do, but have you ever thought about the spaces in between? Have we ever thought about are cities being walkable livable cities?

I just came back from Berlin, and there, throughout the city, these little orange hanging trashcans are scattered. Hundreds of them, and until now, I never realized how helpful they had been throughout my travels. I never realized how these small little orange sirens, with their constant subtle call catering to our better demons, beckoned surrounding trash to them.

Their design, itself, is interesting. A curved top keeps rain out, with a small opening to keep people from dumping household trash but the perfect size for handheld items (that a pedestrian would be carrying). A little hole in the front gives a space for cigarette butts. And being nearly floating keeps away pests. A bright orange color to be seen quickly. But the best part are the fun quotes on the fronts. During my time, I didn't see any duplicates at all, which turns them from an eyesore, to a point of interest.

Conclusion

Now, of course, it doesn't make sense for a city, especially one as spread out as Charlottesville (ex. near Stonefield and 29 North), to have a trashcan every 30ft. But it wouldn't hurt to notice that people do walk those paths, and people do have trash to throw away. Given the choice between doing a good action that is hard, and a bad action that is easy, people will, in most every case, choose the easier option. We should cater to the better demons of our society instead of collectively living with the results of the bad. I personally love the idea of having a trashcan within eye-sight, this alone would make me clean up a LOT more trash than I already do. I also realize that wherever there's a trashcan someone needs to come empty it, but that doesn't seem to phase them in Berlin. It seems like a small ask for a cleaner city; a compromise, we might all be willing to take.