Trash Management Tips for New Apartment Complex Owners
If you are the new owner or manager of an apartment complex, then you know that you need to provide your tenants with places where they can dispose of their trash in a sanitary way, such as dumpsters.
However, you may be unsure of exactly how many dumpsters you need for your buildings and how large these dumpsters should be. In addition, you may have other questions about managing trash from an apartment complex that you need the answers to before you create your program.
Read on to learn a few dumpster rental tips for apartment complex owners and managers that can help you create a tenant trash disposal system that works well for your tenants and staff members.
1. Choose Your Dumpster Number and Capacities Wisely
Dumpsters and other trash containers are available in a wide array of sizes and weight capacities. Choose the number of dumpsters you place on your property and the capacity of each dumpster carefully to make trash disposal more convenient for your tenants and to reduce the chance that your dumpsters will overflow or exceed weight limits on a regular basis.
When deciding how many dumpsters to add to your property, plan to place one dumpster close to each apartment building in your complex to ensure that tenants do not have to haul trash bags long distances away from their buildings.
Disabled tenants may struggle to carry trash bags far distances from their buildings, and tenant injuries due to inclement weather, such as slip-and-fall injuries, could occur more frequently when tenants must haul heavy trash bags far away from their units.
Then, to determine the necessary capacity of each dumpster in pounds when you plan to have a trash disposal company empty your dumpsters once a week, first multiply the number of tenants in each building by 4.9, which is the number of pounds of trash produced by an average person in the United States each day. Then, multiply this number by 7 to determine how much trash the tenants in each building are likely to produce each week.
2. Inform Tenants of What Can and Cannot Be Placed in Dumpsters
The Environmental Protection Association (EPA), along with many state and local governments, have strict guidelines regarding the disposal of hazardous waste.
When hazardous waste is disposed of improperly, it has the potential to harm the health of people and/or the environment. In addition, those who break hazardous waste disposal laws and guidelines can be subjected to stiff penalties in the form of fines. For this reason, you must inform your tenants of what items are hazardous waste products and cannot be placed in your dumpsters.
Just a few hazardous waste items that are commonly used in households today include flammable liquids, such as gasoline; corrosive chemicals; explosive devices, such as fireworks; and items that are fatally poisonous, such as lithium-sulfur batteries.
Provide all tenants with information that instructs them of the hazards of disposing of hazardous waste in your dumpsters and how to dispose of these items safely and legally.
3. Add Additional Recycling Containers to Your Lot
While some states have mandatory recycling laws that all apartment building owners must follow, you should consider placing recycling containers next to your traditional dumpsters whether or not state laws require it.
While offering your tenants a recycling option may increase the complexity of your apartment complex waste management program slightly, providing your tenants the ability to recycle on-site does have its advantages. First, tenants who care about the environment may choose to live in your complex over the others in the area that lack on-site recycling programs; this can help keep your occupancy rate high.
In addition, you may find that your traditional dumpsters fill up less quickly when tenants place their recyclables in separate containers; when dumpsters fill less quickly, you can rent smaller, more affordable trash containers or increase the time between trash pick-ups.
4. Take Steps to Prevent Pest Infestations
Since trash can attract nuisance animals and pests, all apartment owners should take steps to discourage all types of critters from inhabiting their dumpsters and eating the contents inside of them. First, instruct all of your tenants to place only bagged trash inside of the dumpsters; plastic trash bags can prevent the odors of foods inside of them from entering the air and attracting pests.
Also, encourage tenants to keep outdoor trash container lids closed when they are not in the process of placing trash bags inside of them since these lids help block animal entry.
In addition, avoid placing your dumpsters near trees, shrubs, and other large plants — nuisance animals may be more likely to enter a dumpster when they already live in the trees and plants and/or think that sight of their entry into the dumpster is blocked by this greenery.
Finally, have your maintenance team routinely clean the exterior surfaces of your dumpsters with an ammonia and water solution. This solution will not only remove dirt and grime that can attract some pest types, but ammonia is also a natural insect repellant.
If you are the new owner or manager of an apartment complex, then follow these tips when creating a trash management program for your complex and tenants. Contact the trash disposal and recycling experts at Tri-State Disposal for all of your commercial trash and recycling container needs today.