Metro axes trash bin after too many people used it

Despite Seattle’s Alki neighborhood struggling with an overabundance of trash, King County Metro has reportedly decided to get rid of one trash can near a bus stop because too many people were using it.

The West Seattle Blog was told by a reader that she complained to Metro about the lack of a trash can in a space where there used to be one. Here’s a portion of the response she said she got back:

This trash can at this stop was pulled due to excessive trash from the coffee shops and not our bus patrons. Our shelter cleaning crews are not (there) everyday and the amount of trash that was being dumped was a factor in the removal of this trash can. A trash can will not be re-installed.

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If true, there’s a lot to be said about this shockingly ridiculous response. The West Seattle Blog reports the bus stop is right next door to a Starbucks. As it turns out, people wait at the bus stop for the bus. What’s more believable: Starbucks customers buy a drink and consume it outside the store at the bus stop and when they are finished drop it into the trash bin. They might even buy a drink and consume it while waiting for the Metro bus. At that point, they’re a Metro customer.

And why does it matter where the trash is coming from? The trash can that residents pay for — regardless of whether or not they take the bus — is only for use by Metro customers? How on Earth do you even determine that Metro customers aren’t responsible? Couldn’t a bus rider finish their coffee on the route, then put the cup in the bin on their way off the bus?

Why not add an extra trash bin or a larger one? Is there a shortage of trash bins available to Metro? Are these trash bins made of gold and cost too much? Perhaps they’re a rare species of trash bins and you pulling it off the dangerous streets of Alki is an effort to maintain them, allow them to repopulate in the protection of Metro offices, then release them back into the wild to collect Starbucks cups.

Perhaps this is about funding. There is no money left for trash bins because Metro is spending money on a Trash Investigation Unit that goes bin to bin tracking whether or not Metro customers are using trash bins to place trash in?

And, you do realize that by taking a trash bin away you’re likely adding to more litter in the streets? One of the talking points about why one might use Metro is to help preserve the environment from the waste from cars.

Is this a joke? How does the decision maker have a job?

The West Seattle Blog reached out to Metro for a comment and expects one Thursday. Hopefully, we’re all being punked.

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