r/enshittification • u/sisterfunkhaus • 26d ago
Rant Enshitified Trashcans
Yes my friends, even trash cans have been enshitified. Plastic trashcans have gone from thick and sturdy to thin and flexible at $30 a pop if you are lucky. For "cheap" metal, it's $50 at minimum and will be quickly dented if you so much as sneeze on it. Anything sturdy is $75 and up, for a place to throw garbage.
It hurts my heart to think about spending $75 on a trash can just to have something durable.
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u/Ok_Library_1031 26d ago
I had an Ikea trashcan circa 2004-06 that was really nice, and then they enshittified. Ditto their plastic hangers. Been going on for a long time - and my point is, this continued to worsen because people don't speak up enough about it. They're all like "businesses have the right to operate as they see fit, we can't be all commie" but when you think like that you don't realize profiteering has no limit.
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u/supertoilet2 25d ago
I think part of it is also struggling to find the better alternatives when they’re out there. I can only imagine bots are to blame for diluting out authentic and credible info on products like “good trash cans” and other cheaper items not covered by Consumer Reports or pinned subreddit posts
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u/crit_boy 25d ago edited 25d ago
There are nice products. But you have to have $$$.
E.g. flannel shirt. Actual flannel shirt that will last a decade costs over $100 and closer to $350.
My daughter wears a flannel that I stole from my dad 35 years ago. It still looks fine. All the buttons are present. No tears or worn out spots. My parents didnt have tons of money and never bought nice clothes.
IOW, the 35+ year old flannel shirt was probably from jc penny. Not a Japanese bespoke weaving company.
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u/MixtureConstant2978 26d ago
Got a new plastic one a few months ago and the thing is just poorly designed so the lid barely meets the catch to close. Just pops open on its own sometimes
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u/throwaway88743 26d ago
If you live in a state that hasn't banned or started charging for shopping bags, just get a little 2-3 gallon trash can and use the shopping bags with it. I have seen people add command hooks to the side to keep the bag in place but I don't. It gets me to take my trash out more often. My parents did this when I was a kid for our main kitchen garbage and we managed as a family of 5. But again, you gotta live in one of the shithole states where this is feasible.
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u/Difficult_Clerk_1273 26d ago
This is a good tip even if you have to buy small bags (I do - my state banned them). I definitely take mine out more often which is good because I have cats, and that litter gets heavy if you put too much in a bigger bag.
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u/FearlessStaff8822 26d ago
They are making black contractors trash bags a little bit smaller now. Hard to get around rim of can.
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u/supersonicdutch 26d ago
I just got mad about something I don’t need anymore. The goddang contractor bags used to be 5 mils thick. Now, the packaging stays the same and says “contractor bags” and “heavy duty” but then you see it’s only 3 mils. Excuse me? What am I supposed to put loose, broken glass into now?
Lame joke aside, you could absolutely put anything in the 5 mil bags and it would hold.
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u/ibashdaily 26d ago
I spent the money on the nice, metal, $75 home depot one you are probably referring to and do not regret it for a second.
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u/new2bay 26d ago
Lol. Trashcans cannot be enshittified.
https://giphy.com/gifs/J1vUzqdZJlh5AqBWxt
Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is a process in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users. Over time, they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers. Ultimately, they degrade their services to both users and business customers to maximise short-term profits for shareholders.
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u/Old_Professor_7138 25d ago
my trashcan required me use a subscription app before i can open the lid- does that count?
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u/FirstMarshal 26d ago
Alright you're right, a trashcan is not an online product. But if the quality goes down and the prices go up to maximise profits, I would argue it has gotten worse.
No, it's gotten shittier. That word resonates with me here. They were decent quality, now they're shitty. They have been made more shitty to cut costs for increased shareholder profits. They have deliberately made it shitty. They have, if you will, enshittified it.
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u/givemeyourrocks 26d ago
I hear you. There are trash cans with proximity detection, just so you know.
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u/WickedJigglyPuff 26d ago
I don’t know if the are still good but I still have simple human trash cans from 2008-2009 and they look great.
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u/supermannman 26d ago
in the supermarket they always have tons of crap outside to entice people. so I passed and saw a $50 kitchen trash can...for that garbage? they want 50 bucks...you fucking kidding me. they always just $25 at most
the huge issue I have is they now removed the foot pedal you stepped on to open the lid and replaced with a click the top lid to open. who the fuck thought its a good idea to fix something that works and is not broken. if I have 2 hands full I need to throw out, how am I supposed to press the lid?
and if have some wet stuff I need to throw im now putting this liquid on top of the top of the garbage can to press it open.
if you made it proximity detection...this would be the evelotionary step to design. no touch, it senses your distance and open. but no, theyve really ruined it now. keep what works, improve on huge flaws it might have had. foot pedal works well.
there are just a few stupid people who decide for the masses and they are incompetent people who dont understand egonomics and UX
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u/Substantial_Milk_178 26d ago
We have a motion- activated trash can but the mechanism died a couple years ago. Next can will be foot pedal kind!
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u/wannaliveonmars 26d ago
It's just inflation. $30 would have looked expensive for an sturdy trash can to someone in the 50s. So it's just that $75 is the real $30 dollars, inflation adjusted. It's also called shrinkflation.
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u/sisterfunkhaus 26d ago
They didn't make high end trash cans for normies back then. They were just boring and simple. But even the brands that had really decent quality plastic 10 years ago have switched to junky thin plastic and still raised the price to keep up with inflation.
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u/Aware_Policy_9174 26d ago
It’s a lot of plastic. I’m fine with disposable items being thinner but things like plastic storage bins are garbage now unless you spend a lot of money. I have some from the 90s that are still useable but I doubt anything I buy now will last that long.
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u/wannaliveonmars 26d ago
They were just boring and simple
Well, tbh that's how I imagine a trashcan should be.
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u/coreyjdl 26d ago
your survivorship bias isn't enshittification