Hi All,
I have previously been successful in getting translation mistakes in the categories corrected by posting about the issues here on Connect.
Maybe others would care to learn how this can be done.
In the past few days, I have been making maybe 2-300 approved edits on Maps. I noticed that simple containers like this one
were categorized as a Charity, Second-hand shop, or a Waste management service. These are clearly not the correct categories.
Instead of tossing old clothes in the trash, people can use these simple, unstaffed bins/containers to donate them to the Red Cross.
So I started making a ton of these edits:
Notice that I chose the category called: Recycling drop-off location.
I was honestly surprised that a huge NGO like the Red Cross would make such a huge blunder by incorrectly categorizing all their used clothes collection containers.
It is far from helpful to call them a:
Charity (there is no organization to be found at these places)
Second-hand shop (there is no shop here, and no staff)
Waste management service (this category is associated with wastewater treatment plants, etc.)
The correct category must be Recycling drop-off location, as this signals something simple and small, in my opinion.
While contemplating this, I changed the app language from English to Danish (my local language - not a sweet cake). And then I understood why the Red Cross has chosen the wrong categories.
And it turns out that the category Recycling drop-off location, when translated into Danish, is “Genbrugsplads” on Google Maps. This is totally wrong. All Danish people understand a Genbrugsplads to be what you see here:
A Genbrugsplads is a large recycling center we usually drive to on weekends to drop off oversized or hazardous waste that regular garbage collection doesn’t accept.
On this website, we can extract the latest list of Maps categories and their translations.
Above, you can see the two related categories and their Danish translations.
I suggest the Google Maps category called
recycling_drop_off_location in Danish be renamed from “Genbrugsplads” to “Tøjcontainer” (which means a container/bin where you can dispose of used clothing for recycling).
We also have dedicated collection containers for glass. They have their own Maps category:
Also, this translation into Danish is misleading.
It should be Glascontainer, as metal cans are always collected through a different system. Reusable bottles and cans have their own collection points inside every supermarket in Denmark. These should not be added to Google Maps because they are literally everywhere.
Here is what Danes consider a Glascontainer:
Please escalate these suggestions to the team responsible for the Category lists.
, and thanks to you, I noticed it’s also mistranslated in Czechia, where we also have those boxes for clothing donations. The current Czech translation is “Sběrné místo recyklovatelného odpadu”, but that sounds like a place where you can put recycled glass, metal, paper, plastic, etc.
