A passenger is filmed gathering up empty bins at a TSA checkpoint after going through security, and then placing them all in a pile. Is this something you’re supposed to do?
Some people put the bin they were using away when they’re done, while others leave it behind once they remove their belongings. In some airports, TSA employees say to bus your own tray while in other airlines passengers are told not to.
@currentdowns not that I don’t like to do it #airport #security ♬ original sound – kardashianshulu
It can be polite for passengers to stack their bins after removing their belongings. That keeps checkpoints uncluttered, and speeds things along for other passengers. Eventually TSA employees will do it if you don’t, but they may not do it immediately.
On the other hand, these bins are some of the most germ-laden spots in an airport (“the bins are more contaminated than the bathrooms”). Everyone touches them, along with their belongings. They’re more crudded up than the monkey from Outbreak. That’s why I never got the ‘airport tray aesthetic’.
There’s been self-cleaning technology for years but TSA is too complacent to adopt it. One screener breaks it down for you.
“These trays are dirty. You may not see it because I cleaned it, but there was [expletive] in a tray,” Kenney said.
“So you put your vapes in a tray? Just know someone has probably stepped in dog [expletive]. Someone stepped on the ground and put their shoes in a tray,” he added.
Rollaboard bags have been dragging on the ground, from the parking lot, through airports, and across destinations and then they go in these bins. People who may be sick are touching them, coughing on them. I don’t want to touch more of these bins than I have to! TSA employees get nitrile gloves, passengers don’t. (I carry hand sanitizer, and will likely wash my hands in the lounge.)
I find that norms at each TSA checkpoint vary. Some TSA screeners act annoyed that you don’t know what they expect of you, even though it varies from airport to airport. At some airports you’ll be asked to stack bins. At others you’ll be told you don’t need to.
So unless proactively instructed otherwise, I think it’s a matter of doing whatever feels most comfortable to you (including based on norms of what others are doing around you).
Generally I do because if left unstacked it causes a back up..
If you were raised with manners you put the bins where they belong. If you’re and entitled. I’d like most US travelers you are entitled and think everyone is here to serve you and your emotional support animal, you’ll leave them there for the next person to pick up after you.
I can’t even believe the day before 2026 we have to have a conversation with adults about picking up after yourself.
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Why doesn’t the TSA have bins for PreCheck? Rarely do I see them. Yet, especially when it’s cold, people have heavy jackets, etc which must be removed.
A simple idea which seems to have evaded the TSA brain trust
I don’t doubt the high bacterial count on TSA bins. If you consider it a problem, you could carry disposable plastic gloves in your pocket to handle the bins after the inspection. Several sets so you can put a pair on before inspection. Disposable plastic sheeting or bags so your things never touch the bins. I have never done any of that and have never got sick because of it as far as I know. One thing that goes against bin hygiene is that the use of them comes in a pressure packed part of the inspection so you don’t have leisure time to do what you want. However, anecdotal as it may be, my catching a respiratory disease when flying seems to be very much reduced by properly wearing a N95 face mask during the entire trip and only keeping it down while eating. Maybe someone will have a story where they got a disease and are sure that it came from a TSA bin.
I suppose I should add that I often stack the bins before I leave the item recovery area after inspection. Maybe stacking the bins is boosting my immune system.
I typically bus as many trays as I can while waiting for my tray to come out from the scanner.This is both a combination of niceness and self-interest: I want my tray to have room to come out as soon as possible.
Part of the challenge is depending on the inspection machine, there may be different bussing mechanisms. Some lane are built with auto bin-returning mechanism, and there are signage indicating that don’t manually bus the bins. However, passengers don’t read, and return the bins manually, thus building up this fort of bins where the auto return process doesn’t work any more.
@Tom K – part of the challenge is the inconsistency between airports and also lanes, even within PreCheck area. Bins are required if they are using the new Analogic machines.
The problem is TSA isnt consistent at all on everything, at airport X you need to show youre BP but not at airport Y, at X you need to hand your ID to the agent but at Y you have to input it yourself. Which end sup slowing up the line, if they had the same system at ALL the airports it would make things alot faster and simple. Same with the trays either everyone has to return them or not, and not yes here and no there.
My biggest gripe is a person puts their belongings on the table and then leaves and heads to the scanner. I simply will take my things and put it a head of theirs and then tell them what you did was wrong you shouldnt leave until your belongings are on the motorized belt, sometimes , when I mention that to them as they start to leave and ignore me I will take their stuff off the table and put it on the floor
If you don’t wear an N95 mask and are not flu and covid vaccinated this winter season, no sense to complain about germs on the bin.
I use 2 trays and stack them as well as push them further. Exception are automatic lanes, like SLC
Different airports and checkpoints have different screening technologies. The new automated lanes require every item to go into a bin, and the bins will automatically return at the end of the lane. Other lanes only have smaller items go into the bins, and the bins have to be manually returned.
The automated solution requires more screening space and is more expensive. What works for new, high volume checkpoints in Denver might not be needed for Colorado Springs much less Scottsbluff, NE. TSA operates at over 400 airports with different passenger volumes and space constraints, so I don’t ever envision a time where they would all have the same equipment.
Just hit the next bathroom and wash your hands. Things that should not need a reminder at the airport.
But does it, though? I’d argue that restricting carry-ons to a single under-seat item would speed up security checkpoints more than anything else. Not to mention boarding and exiting aircraft.
Oh, come on. Why is this even a question?
Of course you are. It’s just basic manners, like pushing in your chair when you leave.
I ain’t stacking no stinkin bins. NOT. MY. JOB.
Though I rarely need one to begin with.
Isn’t that TSA’s job?
I was at an airport recently in the USA where they had a sign telling us not to stack the bins ourselves. I believe it was Denver.