Apple ditches Trash can name in the UK with Catalina update in favor of a boring one

By Danny Zepeda
published

What you need to know

  • The release of macOS Catalina introduced a weird change for UK users.
  • The Trash can is now going by the name "Bin."
  • The change makes sense, but it's still sad to see the "Trash" moniker go.

With macOS Catalina out, we're slowly discovering the little under there radar changes Apple introduced with its newest Mac software. One of the most comical changes that has been discovered is the renaming of the Trash can to the "Bin" in the UK.

First spotted by Reddit user MrGray99, he posted a picture of the trash can with the name "Bin." Technically, Apple's new name makes more sense because it is actually a bin. Trash is what you put in it.

However, since it has been officially called "Trash" for so long, it's kind of a weird change.

In the past, Apple has made a big deal of the Trash can. When it unveiled the OS X (10.10) Yosemite complete redesign, it noted how long it took it to design a proper trash can with the new minimalist aesthetic that ditched the aluminum trash can of yesteryear.

This seems to be a slow effort on Apple's part to rename the trash can. A user in Australia noted Apple changed the name to Bin with macOS Mojave. Now the change has expanded to the UK with Catalina. Who knows where else the new name will reach next. Possibly the U.S.?

Regardless, the newly minted Bin will always be known as Trash in the hearts of UK Mac users.

Everything you need to know about macOS Catalina

9 Comments
  • Brits have always referred to their trash cans as bins. So, Catalina seemingly memorializes their colloquialism. ...Similar to their referencing a car hood as the bonnet or trunk as the boot.
  • The Americans and British are 2 peoples separated by a common language.
  • I've gotten pretty used to the American words after being on the internet so long, so when I went to Florida I made sure not to get tripped up anywhere. Although, I did forget about the air conditioning being in Fahrenheit…
  • Okay Apple, then you should rename the Trash to “File 13” or “Circular File” for Americans.
  • Isn't trash (can) the most common phrase in America, or was that an American joke I didn't get? I like those names though
  • Trash can is typically what people call it, yes. Garbage can and garbage are also pretty popular.
  • In the U.K., when throwing something away, the usual term is to “bin it”.
  • I don't know what's going on in the translation/locale department over at Apple.. recently with the danish locale for Catalina if not also Mojave(I forget where I saw it first) the translation for a missing Time Machine backup is translated as "Time Machine backup is gone" instead of the correct translation "Time Machine backup is missing" I thought WTH - who took my Time Machine backup drive. I don't care for the translation from Trash to Bin. I am using the British English version here in Denmark because life is too short for translated OS's.
    Although, I like that with Catalina you can set the Dock to be translated to your preferred language by adding the Dock (from the CoreServices system folder) to the "Language & Region" System Preferences pane and then choose the Apps section in there. The Mail app also has the Bin naming - so does every other app like the most recent version of Keka on Catalina. You have a job to do. Also, to make matters worse. Mac application translators for the danish language often take liberties to naming things such as the english "Settings" to the danish "Præferencer" instead of the correct "Indstillinger" And also VLC and many cross platform browsers doesn't acknowledge the correct translation from English "File" to "Arkiv" instead calling it "Filer" which is the plural version of "fil" - it doesn't make sense. That's why I stick to an English macOS and also every other desktop computer OS I install. iOS apps are translated better.
  • I can't really say whether it's right or wrong as I don't speak Danish, although I would imagine Apple tries to go down the route of localization as opposed to direct translation, whereby they try to choose words/phrases that sound more natural as opposed to a direct dictionary translation, but the problem with that is that sometimes it can have quite a different meaning. I'm learning Spanish so I like to use things in that language, you can see some differences in the translation there as well, like "Find my iPhone" used to be "Buscar mi iPhone" which actually translates to "Search for my iPhone". VLC has it's own set of translators, being free software probably means that the translations are community sourced, so they vary in quality. I've seen some really badly translated apps in Spanish, where it looks like they've just used Google Translate. For example I've seen some apps use the incorrect word "Salvar" for Saving a document, but that word actually means to "Save someone (from a bad situation)", so that's quite a funny one.