Why using trash cans is socially irresponsible in a communist country  − 7 March, 2001

“Don’t bother taking your tray to the trash bin. Somebody will get it.”
“Yeah, but I feel bad leaving it.”
“Don’t. It’s their job to clean it up. If you clean it up yourself, you’re taking away their job.”
This is the attitude towards public cleanliness in China. Very few cities have trash cans on the street.
It reminds me a lot of one of George Orwell’s propositions for public works projects in 1984. He proposed digging big holes in the ground and filling them up again, but said that it wouldn’t hold people’s interest.