Table trash.

European hotel and restaurant operators are way ahead of us in dealing with table trash. At our first hotel breakfast in Rome, an opaque plastic cylinder sitting on the breakfast table appeared to be a misplaced intrusion. When it was there again the next morning, we looked past it. The third day, at a nicer hotel in the more gracious city of Florence, the cylinder was a larger version of the vase holding greens, and we realized it was a mini trash can intended for table trash. Single-serve packages of tea, sweeteners, butter, margarine, preserves, and seasoning condiments generate small pieces of paper trash that are awkward and time-consuming to pick up. The table-trash canisters keep them out sight--along with wet tea bags, orange skins, egg shells, and banana peels. Tablecloths and placemats stay fresher and less cluttered than they do in the States, where many tables include packets of three different brands of diet sweetener as well as three kinds of sugar.

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