Meanwhile, I managed to accidentally start a civil war in New Atlantis by picking up an (“Owned”) empty beer bottle off the ground to put it into a trash can.
As someone who hoards everything and doesn't like to bother with stealing things, I learned quickly that nobody in the galaxy cares about certain items. Disposable cups I get, but everyone is also just fine with you taking all their pens, styluses, notepads, notebooks, folders, plants, pots, pans, and that one desk toy that looks like a bunch of balls stuck together.
I've actually never seen an empty beer bottle that was owned before, but I have seen almost identical full bottles right next to them that are, making it easy to steal accidentally if you're not paying attention.
At least it's not like in Morrowind, where if you stole something of a merchant's, they thought that every other identical item in the world belonged to them as well.