I Am Still Alive

“Walkability is not just an amenity. Is it not a lifestyle accessory for the well-heeled. It is, for many people, an issue of basic social and economic justice. Zoning that segregates housing from retail – and that reduces walkability and transit access – has serious consequences for equity. “

They are green trash bags on a green halo of steel attached to a post or freestanding. They are not bins. Nor are they trash cans. I guess I’ll call them trash rings.

I was in Paris the week before the U.S. launched the Iraq War. I found myself aware of these receptacles placed throughout the city. Their shape and the fact that they did a surprisingly poor job of actually keeping the city clean struck me immediately. The trash rings’ design is largely a society’s reaction to the threat of terrorism.

So as a given, these perform their container functions poorly. The bags tear, they overflow, they spill, they keep our refuse constantly visible. They do, however, do their part to minimize the ease with which a person could discretely place a bomb in a public place. And if a person did place a bomb in one of these containers, the bags’ transparency makes it more likely that the bomb might be discovered in time to avert a disaster. The lack of real structure would make reaching the bomb to defuse or contain it somewhat less complicated. Or if, the bomb was not discovered in time to disarm or at least clear the area, the relative lack of metal structural elements would minimize the shrapnel sent about after an explosion.

In this trash ring you find an important trade-off between functions. The public refuse container evolved out of necessity to organize and conceal the things we discard – to keep them out of sight and out of mind as soon as possible. The trash container must now also protect people from a threat as both immaterial and real as these trash rings themselves. In terms of designing for function, the latter purpose is opposed to the former. So we get trash cans that contain and hide our trash poorly as they have to assume a part in a public’s defense against terrorism.

Although you can’t tell from the photographs above, the bags have the words “vigilance” and “propreté” printed on them – placing vigilance before cleanliness (the similarity between “propreté” and “property” is interesting if nothing else).

Gosh, 2003 feels like so long ago. I am not sure that these are still in use in Paris today. Somebody, holler at me and let me know.

Edith Macefield, 1921-2008.