I am unable to determine the path to the Bin directory, the one that is shown in Finder window when I click on The Trash icon in the Dock.

I am seeking it, so I can either use the Finder's Go to Folder... or Terminal's open command to directly open the Bin folder in Finder.


Each user gets their own bin on each volume that’s attached, so your assumption that path stores all files visible in the “bin” or “trash” isn’t technically true. The implementation of trash(es) folders is covered on older OS here.

  • Trash directories on mac - How to find them and how to properly clear them
  • How can I empty the trash from the Terminal?

The most common case is a “soft deleted” home folder file, so to access that bin, do this:

cd ~/.Trash/

Worse, localization comes into play (trash, bin, basura) so this is a delightfully complicated “simple” question.


If your goal is to "directly open the Bin [a.k.a. Trash] folder in Finder" from Terminal, you may use this command to open the special combined trashes window:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to open trash'

Presumably you should change "trash" to "bin" if your system uses that.