Walking to work, I walk past a New York City employee cleaning the top of a trashcan with sanitizer. As a tax-paying and self-proclaimed semi-germaphobe citizen, this made me happy.

Then I remembered the Volkwagen “Fun Theme” campaign – you know the one with the deepest bin ever? It occurred to me – what if every trashcan in New York City were like that cool bin? What if throwing trash in a garbage bin (OMG!) actually became cool?  Rest assured, it won’t.

The reason that deepest trash bin was so incredible, was because it was new. No one had ever seen it before. It contained a element of discovery so kids, grandmothers, and even trash men themselves could partake in. However, line the streets of Manhattan with them, and the novelty is lost. The element of surprise, coolness, and innovation because mainstream as they are literally on every street corner.

As stark as this sounds, how do we continue to embrace change and alter our behavior while maintaining the motivation to do so? Clearly the motivation to throw trash in The Deepest Bin Ever was because it was so freaking neat that we all wanted a go at it. But after this wears off, what happens?