Fast food restaurants sit in a strange space between public and private, service and self-serve. You don’t get full table service, but you do get a shared environment that only works if everyone does a little. For many, tossing trash and returning a tray feels like basic decency—an acknowledgment that workers are already stretched thin, and that the next person deserves a clean place to sit. For others, the logic is simple: if they’re paying, the job should be handled by staff, who are trained to clean and sanitize properly.

In truth, no sign or policy can fully settle this. What matters is the small, silent choice you make when you stand up: leave the mess, or take ten seconds to clear it. That choice doesn’t just shape a table; it shapes the kind of shared spaces we all have to live with.