​Can cute trashcans persuade Jakartans to litter less?

The Jakarta Government just spent Rp. 9 billion on 1,809 of these “animated” trash cans. Photo: Berita Jakarta

Have any of you ever complained about people littering in Jakarta? C’mon, hands up… okay that’s most of you. 

But what have your solutions been? Better public environmental education? Do you think people don’t know that littering is bad? Of course they do – in an abstract sense. But most Jakartans are just too lazy to find a proper trash receptacle due to the city’s alarming lack of garbage cans. 

But wouldn’t most people be willng to carry their trash a little further if it meant you could shove it down this wide-eyed frog’s stupid blank face?

That’s what the Jakarta Provincial Government is counting on. They just purchased 1,809 “animated” (in the sense that they look like cartoons, unfortunately they don’t actually dance and sing when you toss refuge down their throats) trash cans that will be placed in five municipalities.

Saptastri Edningtyas, head of the Jakarta Sanitation Department, told  that the government spent Rp 9 billion on the trash cans as part of their ‘My Trash My Responsibility, My Jakarta Becomes Clean’ program.

“By providing cute trash cans, we hope the littering habit of citizens could be minimized,” she told Berita Jakarta Berita Jakarta.

We applaud the Sanitation Department’s creative approach, but we think they should have chosen a different creature, one that people would be more eager about stuffing garbage into their mouths.How about “animated” Ahmad Dhani trash cans? Enough garbage comes out of his mouth, we’d love to return the favor.



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