Does anyone have good skills in the Spanish language? Do you know any reliable translators online that could translate a short phrase into something a Spanish speaking person could read and understand? This is why I ask. I oversee the clean up operations performed by the laborers on our jobsite. It is a state job and certain environmental friendly things must be done. We must have a dumpster for our landfill trash, one for scrap metal, and one for concrete/block. This is done so that certain construction waste can be recycled. We have had several concrete/block dumpster’s rejected for having too much trash in them. I have mad signs in English, but I still get people discarding trash in the improper dumpster. I would like to make signs in Spanish as well. One that reads “Landfill trash”, one that reads “Scrap metal only! No trash!”, and one that reads “Block and concrete only! No trash!” Anyone will the ability to translate or know of any good links please respond. Your responses will be greatly appreciated!
If there are large numbers of Spanish speakers in your area, your local Yellow Pages will probably be able to direct you to your friendly local professional translators, who will be happy to provide you with an accurate translation, rather than requiring you to trust some strangers on the Internet.
In the OP order:
Basura en general
Solo chatarra metalica. No arrojar basura!
Solo escombros, bloques y concreto. No arrojar basura!
Good luck with people following them.
Translating a couple lines for a dumpster is not the kind of job for which you require an official translator. And trusting strangers on the internet is pretty much what the SDMB is all about (They call them teeming millions, or something) 
Thank you very much. Now my greatest challenge is ahead. Making people follow what the sign says!
FWIW, I also agree with Sapo’s translations.
Just make sure you get some help to pull that king size mattress from the concrete dumpster
Not nitpicking, I promise. Sapo’s translation is perfect, I’m sure, BUT most Mexicans, at least, would use “ECHAR” much more often than “ARROJAR” in the context of the instructions you want to give.
Go to Google, and click on “Language Tools”. This gives you a screen where you can enter some text in any of several languages, and get it automatically translated into any of several other languages.
To test whether it did a good job or not, simply reverse the process.
For example: “Landfill trash”, translated from English to Spanish is “Basura del terraplén”. Translating that back to English gives me "Sweepings of the embankment’. So much for automation. :dubious:
I would have used “Botar”, actually. I just try hard to choose words that leave as little room as possible for dirty minds to tack some sexual innuendo. “throw” is just one of those words that have no possible translation that can’t be misinterpreted by an enterprising filthy mind. Humans…
In my opinion, for most purposes automated translations are worse than useless. They make you think you understand what is meant, when as often as not it is something quite different. Their only real use would be to get the general idea of a passage in a completely unfamiliar language.
“Tirar” would be much more commonly used.