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Category: Project

Description: Litter is a pervasive problem in Washington, DC and in cities throughout the world. Through a randomized control trial, the Department of Public Works and The Lab tested whether we could reduce litter by placing signs with research-based “nudges” on trash cans. We found that the signs did not on average reduce visible litter on the street or increase the amount of garbage in the trash cans. The signs were not scaled up across the city (but we got many compliments on the design!). *We've posted a final paper for others to reference in their work, but do not anticipate conducting any additional analysis for this project. If you are interested in carrying some of this work forward, please contact thelab@dc.gov and we'd be happy to discuss. Public Repo: https://github.com/thelabdc/DPW-smartcans-public.git