Nothing is ever easy in New London.

Just ask Charlotte Hennegan, owner of Thames River Greenery & Beanery on State Street, who has been a driving force for many years behind the downtown beautification efforts of the City Center District, a self-taxing association of downtown businesses.

Witness the resplendent floral displays all over the downtown as evidence of the district's work.

The district was also behind the "New London loves the Coast Guard" campaign in 2012 that preceded the choice of downtown New London as the proposed site of the National Coast Guard Museum.

Hennegan knew her newest idea, to introduce new trash receptacles downtown — copied from ones she saw on a recent trip to Paris — might be a tough sell in quirky, sometimes cranky, old Yankee New London.

The trash receptacles, which are ubiquitous in Paris, are beautiful for their simplicity, a plain metal hoop with a small plastic trash bag attached. Emptying the trash is as easy as removing the band that holds the bag on and replacing it.

Hennegan approached the district with the idea of installing Paris-style receptacles, mounted on light poles, since many of the city's old trash cans were missing or rusted and worn out.

An extra advantage of the hoops is that they hold small bags and there are more of them on each block, insuring that trash throwers don't have to walk far before they find something at which to aim.

Knowing that New Londoners can tend to reject anything new, Hennegan aimed for a slow rollout of the new trash system, just 18 hoops on parts of lower State Street and Bank Street, manageable enough — and reversible — to be called an experiment.

The city agreed to chip in $2,000 for the experiment, including the cost of fabricating the hoops. The district agreed to manage the bag removal for the length of the "experiment" — about six months.

In Paris, the bags are clear, tinted a light green. They were introduced when terrorism had become a growing threat, and the fact that you could see into them was meant to allow police to quickly detect bombs or other worrisome leavings.

Hennegan said someone from the Midwestern trash company that fabricated the hoops for New London warned that Americans don't like to see their trash.

Indeed, when the hoops went up in the first phase of the experiment, using temporary clear plastic bags, the complaints starting popping up on social media and circulating around town.

Hennegan said they took them down until the regular bags — tinted green, more like the ones in Paris — arrived. As of Tuesday afternoon, the experiment was suspended, while the wait begins for the green bags.

I've seen pictures of the ones in Paris, and I can see why Hennegan was tempted to import this French custom. Indeed, she said she was encouraged the first week they were up in New London, when she arrived downtown to see the many small bags full, and the sidewalks cleaner.

I think New Londoners should take a deep breath and give this one a chance. Let the experiment play out. See if there is less trash on the street.

It can't be all bad if it is accepted as good practice in one of the cultural capitals of the world.

Who knows, maybe sidewalk stands where you can buy a crepe will be next.

And the city's next mayor could wear a beret.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct