A simple public service announcement from the City of Toronto promoting the use of public garbage bins has backfired spectacularly, earning the City a good ribbing on social media.

The @cityoftoronto X (formerly Twitter) account shared a post encouraging the public to use designated garbage bins in hopes of cutting down on litter.

Hey Toronto, help keep our city clean. Use the designated bins on city streets and sidewalks, in parks and on beaches and if you see an overflowing bin, contact 311.
Learn about the harmful effects of litter and what you can do to help at https://t.co/nyP99FImVT. pic.twitter.com/PoqLux2DBY

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) August 16, 2023

These same public garbage bins have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years, known more as overflowing public hygiene risks than convenient receptacles for litter after a decade of austerity budgets under former mayor John Tory.

And today, the people let the City hear it.

you mean these ones? pic.twitter.com/G6FrDHIkBP

— Jim O'Leary 🇺🇦 (@jim_oleary) August 16, 2023

Practically every response to the City's X post calls out the municipal government's apparent abandonment of the ubiquitous public garbage and recycling bins scattered across the cityscape.

Hey @cityoftoronto, what say you empty the bins before they get to be overflowing? Why are city services so heavily complaint-driven?

— Lloyd “Two Hats” Davis (@ldaviseditor) August 16, 2023

Users shared anecdotes and even photos of overflowing trash bins, redirecting the blame of Toronto's litter problem towards the City for its seeming inability to regularly empty the often-overflowing bins-turned-trash-heaps.

Doesn’t help that the bins are often full and overflowing. #TOpoli

— Gutter Baby (@gutterbabylife) August 16, 2023

The near-unanimous negative response sheds light on just how fed up the public is with these smelly, festering nuisances in the street.

You'd have more luck encouraging this behaviour if the bins were emptied more frequently and CLEANED. Most of them biohazards.

— Daryl Angier (@DJAngier) August 16, 2023

It also provides a glimpse into the City's apparent disconnect from the problem by suggesting that these bins in their current level of upkeep are a suitable answer to litter.

You kinda walked straight into this one, City of Toronto. Garbage bins are always overflowing. It's a mess out there, and you could do a lot more to address this issue publicly. https://t.co/XoTuYdZ4fo

— Simon 🏕️ 🛶 🇨🇦 (@IHearSimon) August 16, 2023

Even the City's suggestion that people contact 311 to clear overflowing bins is facing ridicule from members of the public who have had less-than-stellar experiences with the public service line.

Guess what? I contacted 311 about bins in my neighbourhood and little is done about it. They overflow, patched up and then damaged again, with no repair. Do you have no regular inspection/maintenance program? Garbage is left around them on the sidewalk. The City is useless.

— Robert Maisey (@maisey_robert) August 16, 2023

The City has suffered similar PR misfires with its social media accounts in the past, like a hilariously misguided attempt earlier in 2023 to convince the public to stop feeding raccoons by using an adorable picture of a raccoon in a bowtie.