Gym.

There are many garbage receptacles in the women’s change room at the gym; there’s one in every little alcove, one in the shower area, one in each changing area (there are 3 areas), two in the washroom area, and one in the entry/exitway of the change room itself.

In other words, they’re accessible and available.

They are also mostly empty.

For some inexplicable reason, the benches in the changing areas almost always have five or six half-empty disposable water bottles sitting on them. Abandoned.

There is always an empty bottle of shampoo, or shower gel, in one of the shower stalls. Sometimes two.

There are half-used bars of soap left behind in soap trays in the showers. Sometimes just wrappers from bars of soap.

I do not understand this. I could see this sort of thing happening if the garbage pails were few and far between – people are lazy (oh, the irony of lazy people at the gym!). I could see this sort of thing happening if the garbage pails were inconvenient or hard to use (?) or overflowing with trash.

But.. they’re not.

That said, there are never paper towels on the floor or kleenexes. There are never hair brushes or clothing left behind. No tampon wrappers in the bathroom area, littering the floor. No clumps of hair in the sink. No magazines or newspapers left on the benches.

And everything else is clean – the mirrors are streak-free, the showers have no mildew, the floors are washed.

The change rooms are regularly cleaned by the staff; I’ve seen them come in and tidy up and scrub things down. It just reaccumulates.

I don’t understand this.