Do wastebaskets exist in Star Trek?

[Melakon]

I don't remember seeing a simple room wastebasket in a room at all. Maybe one has shown up containing an important clue to a mystery once in a while.

Starships might have waste disposal chutes in the corridors, at least during TOS. Not sure if I've seen a way to fit the trash into that tiny little trap door though, especially if it's anything larger than a phaser.

I suppose by the TNG era everything's recycled through the replicators. But if you've just had a party in your quarters with a dozen people, do you have to put the trash in the replicator a few pieces at a time? Do you replicate a trash bag first?

 

[Xerxes1979]

I believe waste receptacles/disposal are mentioned by Worf when he is complaining to Troi about Alexander failing to his chores.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The wastebaskets are in the bathrooms.

 

[Timo]

Not sure if I've seen a way to fit the trash into that tiny little trap door though, especially if it's anything larger than a phaser.

That "Conscience of the King" chute looks pretty much like any such "emergency" or "auxiliary" system: it can accommodate the sort of plastic bag you might find in a hotel room or toilet. The size would discourage abuse: the primary means of disposal would be found in the cabins themselves, or in communal spaces, but if any of those fail, it's a short walk to one of these "emergency" (rather, "contingency") chutes.

A starship's waste collection systems might be less extensive and less technologically complex than those of an average household, really. Communal and centralized solutions might be preferred to save space and power, whereas comfort would be the primary criterion in civilian applications.

I'm sure wastebaskets would disappear fairly soon after the introduction of replicator-style systems. Not from every household, certainly, but replicators introduce a certain type of culture that appears to cover basically the entire human species by the time of TNG, and exceptions (such as people cooking their own food) would be rare. Soon enough, people would come to think of wastebaskets like the Japanese think of hankies: "Eww, a system for deliberately storing yuckiness right next to me!"

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kor]

The wastebaskets are in the bathrooms.

+1

Kor

 

[Grendelsbayne]

What kind of waste are we even talking about? Nothing comes in packages or wrappings anymore. Nobody scribbles notes on paper. Off the top of my head, it seems like the only waste that would even be likely to exist is food waste (chicken bones, lemon rinds and that sort of thing) and broken technology. The first one is clearly established (I think) as going back into the replicator. The second is unlikely to occur very often and could easily go back into the replicator or to some collection point in engineering.

 

[Green Shirt]

The wastebaskets are in the bathrooms.

Right next to the inkwells and flypaper.

 

[Melakon]

What kind of waste are we even talking about?

With the party example I gave, there would be food of course, but possibly also plates and utensils, decorations, wrapping material for gifts, etc.

Used containers for toiletries and grooming would be another, like soap, shampoo, perfumes, colognes, cosmetics, etc.

Human waste naturally would be handled by the plumbing facilities.

Hobbies like painting mean empty tubes of paint, old brushes, thinner if working with oils. Some traditionalists might prefer keeping diaries on paper rather than a computer.

It might be a paperless society as we think of it, but there would still be some form of packaging for small items.

The replicator is the magic trick for the question by the 24th century, but what about before then?

 

[Mytran]

The wastebaskets are in the bathrooms.

Right next to the inkwells and flypaper.

...and those "plates" from the lab.

 

[BillJ]

I don't remember seeing a simple room wastebasket in a room at all.

Of course. What do you think they poop in with the utter lack of bathrooms in the future?

 

[Timo]

That's interesting indeed. Kirk's ship is sometimes indicated to be self-sustaining to all eternity, but this doesn't necessarily mean it's a closed environment. "Mark of Gideon" refers to food supplies that are sized for the crew of 430 for five years, rather than to any ability to recycle or otherwise produce food. The ship is supposed to be on a mission taking only those five years, and is making constant stops at replenishment sites anyway. So waste might simply be dumped.

Why recycle - unless you can recycle sandwich wrappings into something you might want to manufacture during the mission, such as flintlocks? If you can do that sort of extreme recycling, though, you probably wouldn't want to store food when you could simply store the equivalent mass in more compact form (solid lead, say), or get mass directly out of energy.

But wastebaskets are problematic for dumping and recycling alike: they are an unnecessary intermediate storage point in a fairly compact and ultimately centralized system. Indeed, we're doing away with them today already, with pneumatic waste collection networks making a comeback in urban planning.

The one great feature of a dustbin is that it indeed is an intermediate point where things can wait around for a while until you decide you really want to be rid of them. With replicators, you need not worry about this: if your little boy dropped daddy's brooch or mommy's pearl-gripped .22 into the replicator and converted it into sandwiches, you can probably press "cancel" and convert those sandwiches back to the precious heirlooms. But TOS era waste disposal might present problems there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Push The Button]

Maybe something like the waste disposal system in Dr. Morbius's house in Forbidden Planet? Essentially a phaser beam that dematerializes whatever you throw into it.

I also like the idea of "un-replicating" solid waste back into raw materials that can be reused. Part of Picard's tea cup becomes part of Riker's meatball sandwich, which later becomes part of Geordi's new combadge.

 

[Melakon]

The other thing about the replicator as a recycling unit is, who wants to eat a sandwich that just came out of a garbage disposal? That might take some getting used to.

 

[MikeS]

The logical path this discussion is taking is that what Riker's meatball sandwich becomes as it passes through him and the ships waste recycling facilities then gets reformed into another persons meatball sandwich. Which may sound gross but is basically what we do now - ie. turn horse manure into wheat into bread.

 

[Timo]

How so? All sandwiches are made of cow shit, except for those that are made of pig shit. Either you think about it, or you don't. If the former, either you take issue, or you don't. If the former, either you eat it or starve, as there is no alternative available.

At least with replicated food, there exists the theoretical possibility that your sandwich wasn't made of shit...

Timo Saloniemi

Edit: Ninja'ed.

Edit 2: Apparently, that doesn't mean what I thought it did. So, merely beaten to the punch.

 

[Melakon]

Edit 2: Apparently, that doesn't mean what I thought it did. So, merely beaten to the punch.

Well, in my sandwich from garbage disposal example, I'm thinking more along the lines of getting a sandwich from the same place you just got rid of last night's spoiled hollandaise sauce or whatever, not where you just took a dump. But neither case is something you'd probably want to think about.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Trash is dematerialized in the replicator and added back to the energy stores.

 

[The Wormhole]

Sure, whenever they want to get rid of a computer document, they print it off, crumple it up, toss it into the wastebasket, which is eventually collected up and all deposited into the ship's industrial replicators and converted into energy needed to power the holodecks. It all makes perfect sense if you live in a utopia.

 

[Timo]

I'm thinking more along the lines of getting a sandwich from the same place you just got rid of last night's spoiled hollandaise sauce or whatever

Ah. Considering the incredible powers of replication, I wouldn't be worried about anything unhygienic surviving at the food slot cum garbage chute - I would be more worried about some of those deadly energies still lingering!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Grendelsbayne]

What kind of waste are we even talking about?

With the party example I gave, there would be food of course, but possibly also plates and utensils, decorations, wrapping material for gifts, etc.

Used containers for toiletries and grooming would be another, like soap, shampoo, perfumes, colognes, cosmetics, etc.

Human waste naturally would be handled by the plumbing facilities.

Hobbies like painting mean empty tubes of paint, old brushes, thinner if working with oils. Some traditionalists might prefer keeping diaries on paper rather than a computer.

It might be a paperless society as we think of it, but there would still be some form of packaging for small items.

The replicator is the magic trick for the question by the 24th century, but what about before then?

Ah, I didn't realize we were talking 23rd century. I would say the only two possible assumptions would be that the trash collection system is out of sight (so, yes, it's in the bathrooms, and presumably in some unseen corner of the mess hall) or that they have some sort of system that can dematerialize the trash instantly, without massively wasting energy.