A wastebasket is a small container, usually kept indoors, where you throw away things you don't need anymore: crumpled paper, empty juice boxes, broken pencils, or candy wrappers. Most classrooms have a wastebasket near the teacher's desk, and homes typically have one in each room.

The word combines waste (things you're discarding) and basket (a container), though modern wastebaskets are often made of plastic or metal rather than woven materials. You might also hear people call it a trash can, garbage can, or wastepaper basket, though wastebasket usually refers to the smaller bins used indoors, while trash can and garbage can are often larger and used outside.

Wastebaskets serve an important purpose beyond just holding garbage. They help keep spaces organized and clean, making it easy to dispose of waste properly instead of letting it pile up on desks or floors. When a wastebasket gets full, you empty it by taking out the bag or dumping its contents into a larger garbage bin. In offices and schools, people sometimes joke about ideas or proposals ending up “in the wastebasket,” meaning they were rejected or thrown away.