Hi,
After thorough reseach with Win2000 and the Recycle Bin, it's a Registry problem.
If you have all the update patches for Win2000, from Microsoft, it's supposed to take care of this problem; which is listed by Microsoft as an issue.
If all the patches doesn't solve it for some reason, you might consider using Ccleaner instead of re-installing Win2000.
It's available at:
CCleaner - Crap Cleaner free software download - Spyware FREE
It cleans out junk files, cookies you don't want to keep, History, URL's, unneeded Registry entries, and much more. It also empties the Recycle Bin. Whether it would empty a corrupt Recycle Bin, I don't know. It might do it, and would be worth a try, instead of having to re-install the operating system.
Best wishes, and good luck.