So recently, in the interest of interoperability between the various desktop systems, Gnome has switched over to the
www.freedesktop.org standard for trash -- that is, items in the trash are normally stored in ~/.local/share/Trash/files. Unfortunately, you may be using Avant Window Navigator, and its Trash applet points towards the old location ~/.Trash, and so doesn't work.
There is, however, a workaround. First, remove the old trash directory if you still have it
rm -r ~/.Trash
Next, link the old trash location, so that it points towards the new, correct location
ln -s ~/.local/share/Trash/files ~/.Trash
Now the trash applet will show your trash files like normal.
