Dear readers: this is your favorite topic. We’re going to talk trash.

The North End has new brooms. The Back Bay had its alley rally once again. The Beacon Hill Civic Association has mounted a campaign to get everyone to sweep in front of their buildings. It’s pretty basic.

Here’s what has happened at my house: Boston Public Works staffers Brian and Christopher installed a small mesh trash bin, which the city calls a litter basket, on a lamp post near our front door on May 12. Frank O’Brien, the principal administrative assistant in the public works department, unearthed the bin from storage. He thinks it is the only one of its type the city owns.

The reason for all this action is that we’re going to conduct an experiment. It’s something Rajan Nanda and the Beacon Hill Civic Association’s City Services Committee have been wanting to do for some time.

We’re trying to answer a question. Would our streets and sidewalks be cleaner if we had small litter baskets in the residential areas of the city?

Here’s my part:  Taking a cue from Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, I’m volunteering to help our city get its job done. We will keep the bin filled with a trash bag and empty it when it gets full. My husband says, “What do mean ‘we,’ kemo sabe.”

But whether he does it or I do it, the hope is the same. If dastardly dog owners can find a trash bin, they won’t deposit their little blue bags in our tree pit. If neglectful coffee drinkers can find a convenient depository, they won’t drop their cups on the sidewalk. It sounds plausible, doesn’t it?

So far, people are using the bin. It’s not unsightly, but it does collect water when it rains. So far the bin itself is clean, and we can hose it down whenever we water the tree.

Trash is one of Boston’s intractable problems. We are grateful for the tow trucks that pluck up the cars blocking the mechanical street sweepers. That has made the biggest difference in the cleanliness of our streets in the 40-plus years I’ve lived in downtown Boston.

But it hasn’t been enough. I’m sure you’ve noticed that every other city you’ve been to—well, maybe not Calcutta—is cleaner than Boston. Since it is hard to believe that Bostonians are naturally less civic minded or dirtier than residents of Chicago, L.A. or London, there must be something structural that causes the problem.

Many of us have suspected that it is the paucity of trash bins. It’s been a hard sell to get the city to install them and then empty them regularly on our commercial streets. Under recent commissioners that battle has largely been won, although the bins still overflow at times, and the area beneath the bins is filthy.

Frank O’Brien and I think in days of yore there were small mesh bins like mine—I’m now quite possessive of my bin, as you can see—along residential streets. But he said that budget cut-backs eliminated the jobs of the workers who emptied them. Moreover, people put household trash in them, and that overflow caused a bigger mess than there would have been if the bin hadn’t been there.

Since I can see passers-by from my kitchen window, I’m likely to catch someone putting household trash in the bin. And my vigilant neighbors, Greg, Mary, Ivan, Susan, George, Mac, Claire, Lindsey, Eileen and Judy, will be watching too.

The bin may attract more dog walkers who wish to dispose of their little bags. That would be fine since legitimate people on the street make it safer for all of us. We might find the bin quite full as more people find it, but with frequent trash pickup, I’m hoping it won’t be a problem.

Will we notice a difference? Will it be too full to empty easily? What will we do when we go away for a few days? If we think it’s a success, will the city buy more bins for individual residents to empty? We don’t have all those questions answered yet. That’s why it’s an experiment.

Already two people have volunteered to take care of bins at their front door. If this bin makes our block cleaner and if it is relatively easy for us to empty, it could be an idea whose time has come. I’ll keep you posted.