Washington D.C.'s effort to replace the district's decrepit, decade-old trash bins doesn't sound too complicated—have the city take away the old bins, and leave new ones to replace them. Simple, right? As it turns out, not so much. Poor planning, worse execution, and a badly timed rainstorm left the process (ahem) in the dumps, and the city in a bind. A bind that apparently turned from mismanagement to a major breach of civic integrity. It had been promised that the 53 tons of old plastic bins would be recycled, but a sharp-eyed D.C. resident noticed that the city was dumping them instead. Once cornered, city officials admitted that about a third of the heavy plastic cans (132 truckloads) had already been taken to Virginia to be burned.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The polluting debacle is a reminder that the true test of integrity is whether our actions are right not only when they're easy and visible, but when we just might be able to get away with an easy—if unethical—out.