How can I remove the Trash icon from the Unity launcher?

In the desktop interface, the Dash icon and the Trash icon use the top and bottom slots of the launcher, always. We have not allowed the removal of the Trash so that we can enable developers to trust that it will always be there, which means "drag to the trash" is always possible.

It might be worth considering relaxing the requirement that the trash always be on the bottom corner, allowing other icons to take that spot. A blueprint to that effect, discussing the consequences and solutions to issues that might arise, would be welcome.

Currently it's not possible. You should start a blueprint for this in Launchpad, so we can see it in future versions of Unity.

I have found a way to visually make the trash icon disappear. The icon will still spatially be there. Make backups of the icon image if desired.

• Open a terminal.
• type sudo -H nautilus
• press enter
• type "trash" into the search bar
• There will be many pictures of the trash (full or empty) icon with the .svg extension. Select the second largest version of the trash icon and open it with inkscape.
• Press select all (CtrlA) and then press the deletekey on your keyboard. Save and exit.
• Do the same thing for the empty version/full version if you have not already.
• Reboot your computer.

You should then see that the trash icon has visually disappeared and if you mouse over its usual location at the bottom of the launcher, a flag should pop up saying "Trash" or "Empty trash" as usual.