A trash can fire is a metaphor for somethingminor that people get unnecessarily upset about.
Heather's bra in a teacher's desk resulted in a school trash can fire; everyone got worked up about it and talked about it for days. Heather deliberately left one there.
A game played by roomates, whereby laziness and negligence allow the trash to get stacked so high that both parties come to an agreement the person who makes the pile fall over must take the trash out
Tension was high as Paul and Larry played Trash Can jenga. Larry set the empty hot pocket box on top of the already shakey pile of keystone light cans.