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Along the route of my daily walk I've often been amazed by the trash piled up around this can near the bus stop at Noriega Street and 28th Avenue. At some point I couldn't resist taking a picture to start a series, and this is it.
Overflowing trash cans are a common sight all over the city, and this can is obviously overflowing because people are dumping their household trash. I knew a couple of artists who saved money by cancelling their trash pick-up. They also worked hard to keep their trash to a minimum, and certainly kept it far below the average of 2.7 pounds per day per San Franciscan, which seems high to me. If you don't count all the compost and recycling (much of it probably wish-cycling that ends up in the landfill), even my wife and I produce far less than that average. Of course, getting rid of one old couch (as someone did in the last frame above) could raise your average quite a bit.
What strikes me about this can is that, almost without exception, the trash is piled neatly. And not only that, but the city diligently picks it up so that it's never out there more than a day or two. The trash I see on the way to the beach is often gone by the time I pass it again on my return trip home. I used to wonder if the city ever went through the trash or tried any other way to figure out who was dumping it, but I suspect it's just one of those things the city takes in stride.
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