Residential Waste Removal & Recycling

As a homeowner, it is essential that you know the types of services and methods available to you that can help you effectively manage the waste generated on your residential property. It is also important to have an understanding of how waste management affects your quality of life and the standard of the community you live in, so that you can make the best decisions to obtain and sustain a clean, healthy and safe standard of living.

Dumpster Services

There are several reasons why you may want to use a residential dumpster service. Here are three of the most common. Firstly, you may have taken on a home renovation, repair, cleanout, or roofing project, and you need help managing the mess. Another reason you would likely want this type of service is because your regular curbside collection service is unreliable, inconsistent and possibly even messy. Thirdly, it could be that your household is regularly generating more waste than can be accommodated by the designated curbside collection bins.

The first and second reasons are the most pressing as they are pretty much out of your control. However, there is a lot that can be done to reduce the amount of waste your home generates, thereby eradicating the third reason for hiring a residential dumpster service. These include, but are not limited to, not buying items in excess, only buying and using the items you need, not buying items that are overly packaged, composting and recycling more of your waste materials.

Dumpsters for Home Renovations and Cleanouts

If you are undertaking a home remodel or spring cleaning of some sort, a dumpster company will help deliver your container of choice and collect all the debris at a date and time that is convenient for you. Careful consideration should be given to the size of dumpster you choose which will be based on the amount of waste you expect will be left over from your project. An experienced waste removal company can help assess your project and recommend an appropriate rental arrangement.

Dumpsters for Regular Waste Collection

If your curbside collection is letting you down, some dumpster companies can offer peace of mind by renting out their dumpster services for your residential needs. Dumpsters come in a variety of sizes ranging from the small (1 Yard) to the very large (40 Yard container). The larger containers (10 Yards – 40 Yards) are usually reserved for medium-to-large one-off projects while the smaller containers can typically be rented out on an ongoing basis. Again, speaking with a reputable local dumpster service will help you select the right private dumpster arrangement for your home.

Curbside Collection Services

Most municipalities provide curbside collection services for garbage and recycling on anywhere from a weekly to a bi-weekly basis. All you need to do is ensure that all the waste in the bins inside your home has been emptied into the appropriate garbage cans outside your home in time for the scheduled collection.

Thankfully, there are waste collection and disposal companies that really care about the health, safety and cleanliness of your neighborhood, community and environment. You can recognize such companies by the special practices they use that, although increases their operating costs, helps to protect you and your environment. Such practices include:

• Making it easier for you to recycle. By allowing residents to put all their recyclable items in a single container without them having to do any of the sorting, and taking on the task of sorting themselves, these waste management companies are truly doing their bit for the environment.
• Having backing sensors on their removal trucks. The number one cause of accidents in the waste management industry is backing accidents. Backing sensors detect and will automatically stop a truck when anything (a person, car, pet, tree, mailbox, etc.) comes within a dangerously close distance to the truck while it is reversing. These sensors have been shown to reduce backing accidents in residential areas by 80%, which is an indication of its absolute significance.
• Only picking up curbside trash on the right hand side (known as “right hand routing”). This reduces the risk of accident or injury because it means the removal truck never operates against the flow of traffic, nor uses any dangerous maneuvers to collect residential trash such as weaving from one side of the street to another.

Other Curbside Pickup Services

Yard Waste

If you have rubbish such as tree trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, and weeds left over from your yard maintenance, these items can be picked up at curbside adjacent to your regular collection bins. Fortunately, these materials can also be recycled or reused to create compost for soil. Any guidelines for disposing of your yard waste will be specified by your local facility, so be sure to check out and follow their instructions.

Bulk Pickups

Some companies can collect bulk household items that can’t be discarded in the designated garbage container due to their sheer size. These items include appliances or “white goods” (fridges, freezers, washer and dryers, etc.), furniture, mattresses and others. You will need to call your local removal company and arrange a separate time and date for these bulk items to be picked up.

Types of Waste That Cannot Be Collected

There are certain items that you may want discarded from your home that cannot be collected at curbside, or by most waste removal companies. Due to their hazardous and often toxic properties the items below cannot simply be dumped in a landfill with other solid waste materials.

E-Waste

As stated by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), each household in America owns approximately 24 electronic products. And as many of them seek the latest and best devices, they leave behind a lot of outdated electronic products they no longer want, called “e-waste”. This can have a harmful environmental impact if not properly managed. Luckily, there are a lot of businesses and individuals that will happily reuse or recycle your unwanted electronics and even pay you for the privilege. You can find them through a simple online search or by visiting electronic retailers in your area.

Household Hazardous Waste

Items such as insecticides, batteries, fertilizers, aerosol cans, motor oil, cleansers, fluorescent light bulbs, and paints should not be placed in regular garbage containers. It is the member of the household’s responsibility to drop off their hazardous waste at their nearest hazardous waste drop-off center, which can be found through a simple online search or by asking your local waste management company. If you are unsure whether an item you have for disposal is classed as hazardous, it is usually better to assume that it is than to think it isn’t.

Excellent Waste Management Starts at Home

Most households already have an efficient system in place for organizing the mixed solid waste they produce using bins inside and outside their homes. The trash containers inside the home are there for convenience (so that anytime someone in the house wants to dispose of rubbish they can quickly and easily do so) whereas the garbage bins outside the home exist to store the overall waste generated on the property. After all, not many people would like to have to keep going outside every time they wanted to get rid of their rubbish.

Where there is real room for improvement in household waste management, however, is in the organization of recyclable materials inside the home. When someone in the home has a recyclable material they no longer want, the first thought that comes to mind is usually to throw it away using the method they are already familiar with – putting it in the general trash can. Although there are outdoor bins made specifically for containing different types of recycling material, for the same reason as mentioned previously, not many people want to have to keep going outside to put their recyclable waste in the relevant container – they usually always opt for the easier option which is to simply dump it in the nearest garbage container.

The dilemma here is that even though recycling containers and composting bins do exist for storing solid waste indoors, many residents do not know about them and their benefits. Those that do are slow or not willing to change their familiar habits. The reality is that many people do not have recycling on the top of their task list, likely because its effects are not directly apparent in their day-to-day lives. Nonetheless, enough studies have shown that recycling is an essential component to the health of the environment, so it is well worth adopting into our daily habits, particularly when we consider the vast (and unsustainable) amounts of waste being generated per day per person in the US alone (a staggering 4.38 pounds, as stated by the EPA).