"No Littering" and "Trash (🚫 Prohibited)" A4 Printable Sign Downloads

This time I used drawing software to create two simple printable sign templates—the four-character text “No Littering” and “Trash (🚫 Prohibited)” (see Figures 1 and 2 below)—which anyone who needs them can download, print, and use.

In addition, I later added two more warning signs: “Remove within seven days, otherwise we assume no responsibility for safekeeping.” (see Figure 3 below) and “Prohibited: Disposal of Recyclable Waste” (see Figure 4 below).

Don’t worry too much about whether they look pretty—if you already need to post this kind of warning, it’s better to be deliberately plain and clear. How refined do you think the other party’s taste is, anyway?

No Littering Warning Signs

Figure 1: No Littering

Figure 1: No Littering printed text

Figure 2: Trash (🚫 Prohibited)

Figure 2: Trash (🚫 Prohibited)

Why I Made These Signs

Someone near my hometown—I have no idea who, but they have the patience of a saint—keeps dumping recyclables and trash in the stairwell of my apartment building whenever I’m not looking. (I suspect the grandmas who sit around chatting nearby know who it is, but their bonds with one another are even tighter.)

Honestly, this seems to have been going on for a year or two already; I just rarely passed by the stairwell entrance before and never paid much attention. Now that I’ve noticed it, I might as well try to “stop” it and see whether people’s sense of public hygiene passes muster.

Starting last week, I made a point of checking the stairwell, and whenever I saw recyclables and trash, I would gradually move the trash outward toward the road, a little each day.

Those people, for their part, even know to bring the trash inside the stairwell during the daytime, as if they were being all environmentally conscientious.

As for this week’s plan, I’ll repeat last week’s actions, but I’ll spread the recyclables and trash along the edge of the road. Of course, for traffic safety, I’ll only place them within the private property line, as close to the road as possible.

If such an obvious hint still can’t stop these people’s bottomless sense of civic duty, then starting next week I’ll post the “No Littering” and “Trash (🚫 Prohibited)” signs shown above on the stairwell and the front door to make it plainly clear.

Although I think that’s rather embarrassing—it’s basically telling passersby that this neighborhood gets littered with trash.

Well, if they ignore even my good-natured reminders, aren’t they forcing me to buy a camera and report them? But that’s something for the week after next. I hope those people will stop on their own before I have to waste money and damage neighborhood relations.

I meant to leave them a way out, yet they stepped on my face; Once courtesy is gone, they’ll weep and call me cruel.

Good People, Evil Deeds | Selected Poems of Ziming

Additional No Littering Designs

Besides the trash and recyclables constantly dumped in the stairwell, there are also pipes, brooms, dustpans, and other items that have accumulated over the years and whose owners are long unknown—so-called pseudo-trash.

So this time I designed the following notice text, announcing that everything will be cleared out in one go after seven days.

This one isn’t posted on the wall; instead, it’s taped directly onto the target items—for example, taping several brooms together and then sticking this notice on them.

Figure 3: Remove Within Seven Days

Figure 3: Remove within seven days, otherwise we assume no responsibility for safekeeping.

The notice reads: “ATTENTION!!! All personal items placed in this area must be removed within seven days. After ___ year ___ month ___ day, the residents of this building will assume no responsibility for safekeeping.”

Figure 4: Prohibited: Disposal of Recyclable Waste

After the stairwell had finally stayed clean for a week, wouldn’t you know it—trash was dumped there again for three days straight.

So I specially designed a new warning, “Prohibited: Disposal of Recyclable Waste,” and to make sure the culprit couldn’t claim they didn’t understand Chinese, I thoughtfully added Zhuyin phonetic symbols.

Figure 4: Prohibited: Disposal of Recyclable Waste

Of course, this is also the final warning—“three strikes” is exactly for times like this. If the littering doesn’t stop completely, I’ll have no choice but to start setting up surveillance cameras. Once I’ve spent the money and effort to install them, I won’t be sparing anyone’s feelings anymore; whatever the law says, that’s how it will be handled.