This is a real issue, because if i delete something out of the Assets folder in the last unity version i can go back and restore them, but now you lost your files forever. When i delete a file by accident because i think i not need this file, i cannot restore, and need to repeat my whole work.
Unity 5.0
confirmed here also, did you reported as a bug?
yes, have done it now
This wouldn’t be an issue if you were using a version control software. Check GIT, Mercurial or SVN. and save yourself of future headaches.
I work on Git and Mercurial(can pull the missing assets), but the workflow with recycle bin should work fine for all people.
Sorry, the way you phrased it made it sound like the Trash was part of your workflow,
Don’t know what OS you are using, but this doesn’t happen to me on OSX Yosemite.