pouring liquid in the trash can

[OutThere]

Today at work I served a woman a cup of iced coffee. She took it, realized it was too full to pour as much cream as she wanted to put in it, and poured a large quantity into the trash.

I'll take this moment to remind people that trash bags are easily torn, and aren't necessarily very good at holding liquid, and that someone, at the end of the day, has to empty the trash. (read: get coffee all over their feet and the floor) For those faced with this situation, please ask the server to pour some out in the sink for you.

Maybe I was just especially pissed in general because someone had recently walked off with $20 from my tip jar while I wasn't looking.


Novel conclusion: people are *******s.

Consider also...if you are an especially rude customer, you'll rarely receive the best service.

 

[Hummer]

Well, I see people in starbucks doing this all of the time. And if they didn't want them to do it they would have put up a "no pouring coffee in garbage cans sign" by now. The amount of coffee I've seen going into the garbage, I'd think that they had special types of bags for it. And I'm talking hot and cold coffee. Plus when I do see them take the garbage out there is barely ever any liquid.

 

[TheAnswer]

I would amend your suggestion...

While it's true that someone has to take the trash out. It's probably also true that same person has to haul the trash can back and wipe it down at the end of the day. Also, one of the last things a server wants to do is to have someone ask them to dump something out for them. There are too many ways it can go wrong: it disrupts normal customer flow, the customer could be unhappy with the quantity dumped out ("ohh, that's too much...can you fill it up again?").

So my suggestion: If you are going to need tons of space in your coffee, iced tea, etc. for sugar or cream or whatever, ask your server to leave that amount of space in your drink beforehand.

Well, I see people in starbucks doing this all of the time. And if they didn't want them to do it they would have put up a "no pouring coffee in garbage cans sign" by now..

It's probably more a case of so many people doing it (i.e. people not bothering to listen/read) that they've given up trying to stop it. It's actually easer just to put up with one messy trash can than to change the habits of millions of people.

 

[OutThere]

I would amend your suggestion...

While it's true that someone has to take the trash out. It's probably also true that same person has to haul the trash can back and wipe it down at the end of the day. Also, one of the last things a server wants to do is to have someone ask them to dump something out for them. There are too many ways it can go wrong: it disrupts normal customer flow, the customer could be unhappy with the quantity dumped out ("ohh, that's too much...can you fill it up again?").

So my suggestion: If you are going to need tons of space in your coffee, iced tea, etc. for sugar or cream or whatever, ask your server to leave that amount of space in your drink beforehand.



It's probably more a case of so many people doing it (i.e. people not bothering to listen/read) that they've given up trying to stop it. It's actually easer just to put up with one messy trash can than to change the habits of millions of people.

Well, telling me (the server) you need a lot of space for milk would be the ideal situation, but nobody actually thinks ahead like that. I'd much prefer to take the time to dump it out in the sink than deal with a bag full of coffee. Just the other night I pulled the bag out of the can, took two steps before something inside pierced the bag and sent several cups worth of cold coffee/milk onto my foot and the floor. We use good, 'heavy duty' trash bags, so that's not the problem....trash bags just weren't meant to hold liquid like that. I'm ranting and I'll stop.

 

[TheAnswer]

Well, telling me (the server) you need a lot of space for milk would be the ideal situation, but nobody actually thinks ahead like that. I'd much prefer to take the time to dump it out in the sink than deal with a bag full of coffee.

The problem is nobody actually thinks about someone having to dump the trash out, either. Especially if you work in a coffee place, you're dealing with a bunch of addicts that only care about getting their high.

Here's an idea. When you replace the trash bag, open it and then place a piece of duct tape on the outside of the bottom of the bag. Then poke a hole through the duct tape. It helps if you have room for a 5 gallon bucket in the bottom of the trash can, then you can rig a support to hold the bag above the bucket and the liquid will drain into bucket.

 

[motulist]

If this were really a problem for starbucks then they'd just put a fancy bucket for liquid garbage on the straw/napkin/garbage stand thing. And if I'm the first to think of this idea and you want to use it, then you're welcome.

 

[Gymnut]

What's curious is if why didn't this woman just drink some of the iced coffee to allow more cream rather than throw away a good portion of what she paid for.

 

[hotsauce]

I do this all the time I assume the napkins and other paper products in the garbage will absorb it. Here's an idea, why not pour some absorbing agent that's in powder form in the garbage bag first. Better yet just pour some kitty litter in their when you replace the bag.

 

[juanm]

Another idea would be putting in place some kind of special receptacle solely for this purpose labelled "FOR LIQUIDS ONLY".
At the end of the day, you'd collect it, so you could just heat it up and sell it again the next morning (for a discount, of course). Or name it "special collector edition eco-coffee" and make the client pay a premium so he can feel special and brag around how he has money and helps preserving the planet by recycling.

 

[dcv]

My boss at work does this... he drinks half a cup of tea or whatever and then just dumps the open half-full cup into the bin without even putting the lid back on the cup I find it annoying as we share a bin between our desks.

 

[srf4real]

I hate it when I go into a coffee shop and get really crappy service because some a** has already pissed off the guy behind the counter by stealing his tip money and pouring liquid in the trash.

My wife does this to me all the time, I don't even have to leave the house to know how you feel.

 

[it5five]

I hate this so much.

Seriously, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE liquids in trash cans. There is no excuse. At all. Ever. I used to work at a gas station with a lot of pumps, and had to empty about 15-16 trash cans twice a day.

About 12 of those trash cans were outside. Which meant that the liquids in the bottom of the trash can would collect bees/flies/ants/whatever. It was almost impossible to clean the trash cans (it was a day long task, rarely happened), so we had to set up certain things to draw bees away from the customers (an open 2 litre of mountain dew behind the store usually worked).

The rest of the trash cans were inside. It was way worse in there. People would fill up entire 52oz drinks, decide they wanted something else, then throw the whole ****ing cup into the trash can without emptying it first. Same with the slushees. That **** would piss me off when the bag tore; I'd get slushee/soda all over me, then I'd have to go mop up. Then people would ignore the "wet floor" sign and walk all over the freshly mopped area, which made the floor all sticky/gross, which meant I had to spend my day looking after grown adults reminding them to ****ing READ.

I hated that job, but I worked there for 2 years. In retrospect, I can't believe I worked there that long.

 

[juanm]

... on the other side, in Africa, people often have to walk miles to get some barely drinkable water.

 

[SamIchi]

I hate this so much.

Seriously, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE liquids in trash cans. There is no excuse. At all. Ever. I used to work at a gas station with a lot of pumps, and had to empty about 15-16 trash cans twice a day.

Same here I worked at a gas station and the worst was the coffee. Old coffee and garbage has gotta be one of the rankest smells ever. I only worked there for the summer though.