Why is it called the recycle bin!?

[RacerX]

It seems Windows copied the theme from NeXT.

Well, before NeXT's recycler appeared (in NEXTSTEP 2.0 as I recall), the icon was a black hole.



So in a way Windows Vista seems to have copied that also.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I renamed mine some time ago:

 

[wongulous]

Well, honestly, the "Recycle Bin" makes more physical/literal sense--it is recycling (or REUSING) your disk space, the tiny bits of magnetic information stored on your hard disk's platters, for later use. Just like melting down your pop cans so they can later be made into other things like cars, iPods, more cans, lightpoles, etc etc. It's also a little more realistic a concept because with most systems (until Leopard's Secure Erase feature), file data does just stay there until actually overwritten.

But the "Trash" makes more symbolic sense, because it's pretending that your files are real and that if you want them gone, you put them into a trash can and they disappear. You would seemingly have unlimited space, or at least you, the average end user, should be unaware of the concept of limited storage on the disk that is used over and over as files are deleted, written, deleted, written. This seems a little more 1980s-burgeoning-inventive-Apple-GUI-innovations to me in the sense that it's very iconic and meaningful to the uninitiated and the concept is transparently obvious. You can see this illustrated by people in this very thread, asking what their file data is being recycled into not realizing that it's the disk space being recycled, not the files put into there.

All this said, I've always thought that there should be two "trash cans." A recycling bin and an incinerator. Recycling bin is just like what our trash is now, and the incinerator would be a secure erase delete.

 

[JFreak]

As long as they don't call it "the trash", they can call it whatever they like to. That's what they've always done; here's few famous examples:

*) Moving Apple menu from top to bottom, replacing Apple icon with Start button. Now the menu intuitively "drops up" instead of dropping down. Plus, because the menu is on the bottom of the screen instead of staying on top, you need another menu for every application window. Clever.

*) Moving desktop icons from right to left, leaving them always below the open window that close to every person writing from left to right wants to have on the left side of the display. On the plus side, the desktop clutter almost always stays hidden. How sharp thinking! The user will rarely have to do desktop maintenance...

*) Moving Window Close/Minimize buttons from left to right. Ingenious! This will probably make it much easier for left-hand users to operate... they're majority, aren't they? No wait, they're not...

 

[DaveF]

Well, before NeXT's recycler appeared (in NEXTSTEP 2.0 as I recall), the icon was a black hole.



So in a way Windows Vista seems to have copied that also.

Yep. I missed the Blackhole when they switched to the Recycle arrows. The Blackhole had more pinache. But that was a lifetime ago, writing edu apps in NeXTSTEP in college

I have old floppy disks with all my NeXT code. I have no idea if they are even functional; I can't read them with conventional PC disk drives.

 

[IJ Reilly]

But the "Trash" makes more symbolic sense, because it's pretending that your files are real and that if you want them gone, you put them into a trash can and they disappear.

Even more to the analogy, until your real or virtual trash is emptied, you can retrieve any item you've deposited there. I think this one of the main reasons Apple used the trash metaphor. The idea is to relate computer functions to activities people already understand. Recycling bits and bytes on a hard drive is not a readily transferrable concept. Most people don't know about, and don't need to know about, this technical function of their computers.

 

[twoodcc]

wow, this thread started off kinda funny, and then turned rather serious. come on, let's keep it funny

 

[Ninja Guidan]

It has nothing to do with a lawsuit, but the thought is correct. Just as Microsoft put the desktop icons on the left side of the desktop instead of the right, they called the trash the recycle bin to differentiate Windows from the Mac. It's just one example of the many silly things Microsoft does in a futile effort to appear to have original ideas.

The recycle bin makes little sense as a concept, unless you have a geek awareness of bits and bytes -- which of course few users do. Apple also spent quite a bit of effort determining that placing icons on the right side of the desktop has cognitive advantages. Microsoft swapped them to the left just to be different, and because they don't care about human engineering.

Yep...plus "recycle bin" sounds so much better than "garbage can."

 

[HLdan]

in Windows, open the Trash can (or the Recycle Bin, or whatever you call it)
then right-click on one of the items, you'll see an option to "restore" it to its original place.

the same thing can't be done with the Mac's Trash (at least for now). say, you deleted a bunch of files and realize you've made a mistake. now it'll be a pain in your arse to try to remember which file goes to which place.

Um, what are you talking about? Make sure you got it together before you post or understand how you posed your sentence.
First off, in Windows the only reason you need to restore anything to the place it was before it got dumped in the Recycle Bin is because you just can't drag and drop installed apps to the Recycle Bin and empty it. Since the Registry shares bits and pieces of files from applications installed you can easily mess up a file from another program by just dumping it.

On the Mac, there's no need to restore to it's original place. All you have to do is open the trash and drag the file or program back to the desktop and it works again since there's no stupid Registry mixing up the Mac's files.

Also on Windows or the Mac, if you empty the Trash or Recycle Bin you have to go through a lot of file restoration techniques to get back your files. It's not Mac specific as in your posting.

 

[DaveF]

Um, what are you talking about? Make sure you got it together before you post or understand how you posed your sentence.
First off, in Windows the only reason you need to restore anything to the place it was before it got dumped in the Recycle Bin is because you just can't drag and drop installed apps to the Recycle Bin and empty it. Since the Registry shares bits and pieces of files from applications installed you can easily mess up a file from another program by just dumping it.

On the Mac, there's no need to restore to it's original place. All you have to do is open the trash and drag the file or program back to the desktop and it works again since there's no stupid Registry mixing up the Mac's files.

Also on Windows or the Mac, if you empty the Trash or Recycle Bin you have to go through a lot of file restoration techniques to get back your files. It's not Mac specific as in your posting.

Unfortunately, this is wholly wrong. In Windows, if you delete a file, you can undelete it from the Recycle bin. For example, you delete your PersonalFinance.xls from your C:/My Documents/Finance/2007/Budget folder. You then later realize that was a mistake and you're unsure exactly where you'd previously organized this file. You can "Restore" it and Windows will automatically put it back where it came from, in the same folder location.

This has nothing to do with uninstalling apps, the registry and unless you keep all your data on the desktop, it most certainly is useful to be able to restore data to its "original place." This would be a useful feature for the Mac. In general, I find my Mac trash bin la bit ess useful than the Windows Recycle Bin for reasons like this.

 

[Awesomenes931]

So I was sitting here thinking about how my physical trash can looks like the Mac OS trash icon and how lots of people here have the same trash cans.

Anyhow, then I thought, "Wow, Windows calls it the recycle bin. But what is being recycled? Well... nothing... What a silly name!"

Sorry if others have had this epiphany. But I just have to wonder why the heck it is called the Recycle Bin. Unless Microsoft downloads your data for reuse....

I think that it used to be called the trash can, but with the current state of the world, someone probably got offended and sued them for it.

 

[cube]

It's just one example of the many silly things Microsoft does in a futile effort to appear to have original ideas.

Or maybe is one example of IP protection going too far, as a trash icon for the place where you put your garbage files is a natural concept.

 

[ActionableMango]

I think that it used to be called the trash can, but with the current state of the world, someone probably got offended and sued them for it.

Considering that OP posted this question more than 9 years ago, hopefully by now he has moved on with his life and is not still waiting for answers.

 

[deany]

When I first used W95 I liked the name 'Recycle bin' as I understood deleting something didn't mean it was gone for good.

One thing I have found with macOS is I have a mac formated Samsung USB 3 2TB and its full. If I delete files off the USB 3 it doesn't free space UNTIL I empty the trash can on the MacOS Sierra.
I prefer not to empty trash can, anyone know why this occurs?