Metro reverses embarrassing decision to ax trash bin for overuse

Turns out that shaming an irrational and unreasonable decision by King County Metro pays off.

After removing a trash can at a popular bus stop in West Seattle — because people were using it too much — Metro quietly re-installed a bigger trash bin. This happened after they were incessantly mocked of their ill-conceived decision.

Related: Metro axes trash bin after too many people used it

As you may recall, last week, we learned that Metro removed a trash bin because they believed too many non-Metro patrons used it to throw away their Starbucks cups. Their reasoning made no sense and they have no proof that the trash bin was used by non-bus riders. Moreover, that shouldn’t even matter. You can read about their decision here.

After the public found out what they did, they quickly retreated from their decision, telling the West Seattle Blog that “we’re going to put a new 35-gallon can out there in the next few days, and will monitor how things go.”

This is pretty emblematic of some significant problems. It is not rocket science to put in a bigger trash bin if the current bin is overflowing with garbage. It turns out, taking away a trash bin that’s overflowing with trash makes the situation worse. Why did it take public shaming to get them to do what they should have done in the first place? Turns out publicly shaming silly decisions actually works. Feel free to send me your tips.

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