What’s the deal with garbage cans bearing the label of “waste”?  I realize that it is likely an invitation to insert one’s waste therein, but I read “waste” as being a directive to act.  Hopefully, the label is intended to refer to the noun rather than the verb form of the word, but I think that such an ambiguous word ought not be applied so liberally when it is so easy to misinterpret in such a dangerous way.  Seriously, I would much rather have trash bins encourage me to “waste not” or “finish eating your meal” or perhaps they could bear a caption such as “did you think to recycle?”  Even a simple “insert trash here” would suffice.  The lone word emblazoned upon the receptacle is “waste”.  If Ella from Ella Enchanted were to read such a mandate, I anticipate that in her obedience-oriented impulse control problem, she would be compelled to accumulate all manner of substances or objects, be they useable, reusable or otherwise, and then fiendishly dispose of or carelessly squander them all in a wasteful manner into the bins that compel her to do so through their written mandate.  I don’t think we should waste. 

And on a related note, I’ve noticed that some trash cans say “push here”, referring to the door separating the trash bag from the outside world.  I just think that if someone weren’t familiar with social norms they could easily misinterpret that and push over the whole trash can.  It would be the city version of cow-tipping.  But I don’t think it would be a good idea.  Just saying.