Posts tagged ‘Trash cans’
A Simple Guide to Choosing and Placing Receptacles
Indoor Trash Cans
Choosing and Placing Receptacles
Your choice and placement of trash and recycling receptacles will go a long way toward ensuring that employees and guests take advantage of them properly, keeping your workplace and outdoor areas free of rubbish and odors. The following tips can help you determine the best trash bins and placement for your needs.
Choose an Appropriate Material
The best receptacle for any office or industrial location is determined in large part by the material it is made of. Trash and recycling containers come in a variety of materials to withstand different degrees of use, including:
- Steel and stainless steel
- Wood
- Plastic
- Concrete
Wood trash cans, often with decorative elements, are perfect for offices and even some outdoor spaces. Stainless steel trash cans are durable and attractive, and come in a variety of sizes and styles for office, outdoor and industrial use. For maximum durability with the bonus of anti-theft protection, concrete trash cans are perfect for very high use or park areas where theft, elements and rough use are expected.
Size According to Location and Use
When choosing receptacles for your place of business, it’s important to determine what size will fit both the space and your waste requirements. Small wastebaskets placed around the office or under desks will keep individual spaces clean, while moderately sized trash cans — preferably with lids to keep odors under control — are optimal for shared spaces such as break rooms, lunch rooms and kitchens. Industrial locations and some outdoor places like parks or walkways usually require larger trash cans to accommodate higher traffic and larger items.
Color Coding Promotes Recycling
Color coding your waste receptacles is an easy way to encourage employees to dispose of their trash or recycling properly. While blue is the standard catch-all for recycling, other colors can be implemented according to your workplace needs — for example, using green bins for plastic, yellow for cans, white for paper, etc. No matter what color coding method you choose, be consistent with them throughout the workplace.
Placement and Visibility Are Key
Finally, proper placement of receptacles is actually more important than how many bins you have. Consider what sort of trash will be disposed of in specific areas and place bins accordingly. Here are a few handy tips:
- Large sturdy trash bins just outside doors allow people to discard trash before entering
- Lidded receptacles placed next to tables or benches in outdoor spaces make food disposal a snap
- Cigarette receptacles and outdoor ashtrays are best placed just outside of rear or side doors or in any outdoor break area for quick disposal before entering the building
- A combination of bins for recycling, food and trash is perfect for high traffic areas such as kitchens, break rooms or outdoor areas
Receptacles come in such a wide variety of sizes, colors and materials that, with a little advance planning, you can easily select the perfect combination for your workplace.
FollowRecycle Right: Choose the Proper Can for Your Office
Steel Recycle Bins
Recycle with the Perfect Recycling Trash Can
300 to 400 tons of trash are dumped daily on the once bucolic island of Thilafushi in the Maldives, transforming it into a toxic wasteland. Moscow, Naples, and the state of New Jersey are plagued by chronic landfill overflow problems, inciting political debate and international press coverage. In Los Angeles, two Material Recycling Facilities, or MRFs, have experienced an overnight spike in volume from 200 tons a day each to a combined 10,000 after the closure of America’s largest landfill, which received a staggering 12,000 tons of waste a day, or half of Los Angeles County’s daily trash production. Many American landfills will reach capacity within the next five years, and operators are resorting to incineration, which is considered hazardous because of toxic air pollution. On this front, the EPA is conducting a study on dioxin emissions to determine if this practice is safe or would cause long term health devastation to local communities like the Seveso disaster. Recycling is universally touted as the most immediate solution to the global landfill crisis. Recycling trash cans can help in getting you started.
Even if your office has never recycled before, it only takes a few simple steps to start. First, identify local facilities or municipal collection programs that will accept materials. If quick Googling doesn’t help, many MRFs are listed in regional online databases such as these. Any local or regional MRF or waste management provider could be helpful in directing you to your nearest facility or hauling service. Second, choose the perfect office recycling bins to do the job. Lastly, start your recycling campaign at the office. For specialty needs like e-waste, business to business arrangements may also be suitable as several large U.S. based electronics manufacturers have committed to recycling divisions.
How to Minimize Waste at Work
Based on collection availability in your area, match with the items your office tends to produce. Every office where people eat lunch and have snack breaks will produce some blue category recyclables such as glass and plastic bottles. Maybe your office also produces a large volume of e-waste, scrap metal, plastic bags, construction materials or biodegradable materials. These different categories of items typically do not go to the same facility, so multiple bins or sectioned cans with separate liners are required for collection.
Encourage recycling in the work place by selecting the proper public recycle bin for your needs. An office producing large amounts of recyclable paper may want to shirk desk trash cans for small recycling wastebaskets and place a community waste receptacle for trash. Any office can encourage paper recycling by placing a can near a shared printer or copier. A recycling can in decorative gloss chrome or metallic silver reminds workers where to place aluminum, scrap metal, or e-waste. Covered bins can reduce the odor problem associated with biodegradable material. If your office produces multiple categories of recyclables or employees are confused by the recycling initiative, office recycling bins are available that are compartmentalized, labelled, and custom colored to collect multiple types of materials and remind employees of a can’s designated purpose.
Trash Cans Unlimited offers an array of designer receptacles to meet any recycling need.
Choosing the right trash receptacle for your office
Garbage Cans for the Office
Choose the Right Trash Can for Your Office Space
Offices have spaces with various functions – desks for working, conference rooms for meeting, and lunchrooms for eating. Just like every space is designed for its intended function, there are a variety of different kinds of trash receptacles for all areas of your office. Your trash says a lot about your office – make sure your indoor and outdoor garbage cans are creating the right message.
Benefits of Proper Disposal
Ensuring employees and customers have the right options for trash and recycling disposal can help your business in many ways:
- recycling bins promote green corporate culture
- tidy desks free of trash increase productivity
- neat floors and surfaces show attention to detail
- good hygiene improves the health and safety of employees and customers
- covered trash cans reduce unwanted food smells
Finding the Right Trash Can
Your office should have the right trash can for every area of the building. Outdoor trash cans allow people to dispose of unwanted items before entering your building, which reduces the amount of litter both outside and inside your building. Depending on your company’s needs, outdoor trash options could include garbage cans, smokers receptacles, or recycling bins.
When choosing indoor trash cans, smaller decorative options can add to the overall design of your office, which serving as a place to get rid of trash. Small under desk trash cans can help your employees keep their space clean and orderly, without having to interrupt their work with a walk to a far away garbage can. Keep in mind that smaller trash cans should be emptied more often to reduce overflows.
Trash cans for office kitchens, lunchrooms, or break rooms should have a lid to avoid unwanted food smells from traveling through the office. Lids will also cover any unsightly food wastes that could attract insects and give your office a messy or unkempt appearance.
Surprisingly, more trash cans doesn’t always mean less litter, so be sure to find the right balance to meet the needs of your office. A few strategically placed garbage receptacles will reduce litter more than several haphazardly placed options.
Types of Garbage Cans
Trash receptacles come in all shapes and sizes and can be made from:
- metal
- steel
- stainless steel
- plastic
- natural materials
Choosing the right material will ensure your office trash can is durable enough for its location and type of trash, and can also make a difference when it comes to cleaning or other maintenance.
Are you using the right trash cans for your commercial building?
Stainless Steel Commercial Trash Cans
Use the Right Commercial Trash Cans
Disposal receptacles can say a lot about your business. The availability of recycle bins might promote a green corporate culture. Fewer trash cans can help cut down on litter. The addition of covered ashtrays may reduce the number of cigarette butts cluttering up a store front. The type, number and style of commercial trash cans can help promote the brand associated with your company, and improve the perceived reliability of your services/products.
Offer Receptacles for All Types of Trash
Cutting down on litter creates a more welcoming atmosphere, and that starts with offering the right combination of trash receptacles. Outdoor trash cans help catch items people do not want to carry inside, like an empty drink or food container. Of course, it is always a good idea to offer two different options, one for trash and one for recyclables. Smokers receptacles offer an approved depository for butts that would otherwise cover the ground. For non and recovering smokers, nothing is more off putting than discarded butts. Inside the building, discretion is the better part of valor. Small, unobtrusive and decorative cans can be used to help create a pleasant visual. Make sure they are emptied frequently to avoid any overflows, and visitors will respond more positively to the cleaner atmosphere.
Prepare for the ‘Pay as you Throw’ Model
Technology now allows trash companies to track the amount of garbage produced by your company. RFID tags embedded in your trash cans can actually measure trash disposal by weight. That could spell some changes to the way disposal companies handle removal charges. Ramp up the recycling to help prepare for potential changes. Google has paved the way with a new program in their London office that removes individual trash cans. No more waste baskets at individual desks. Instead, employees all go to a central disposal location for trash. As a result, they have seen a 50 percent increase in recycling.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
As more cities cut down on trash collection services, the temptation is to replace existing trash cans with larger alternatives. Before making that decision, take a serious look at your trash production. Would more aggressive recycling reduce your trash collection needs? If so, think about implementing alternatives that promote a cleaner approach to trash. Your trash cans are your direction to employees. Make sure they say the right things and encourage the right behaviors. TrashcansUnlimited.com can help.
Resources:
http://commercialobserver.com/2014/01/fewer-trash-cans-less-litter-mta/
http://www.mnn.com/money/sustainable-business-practices/blogs/no-trash-cans-for-google-employees
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/pure-genius/trash-collection-goes-high-tech-to-promote-recycling/
http://home.ieis.tue.nl/ydkort/0013916507311035v1.pdf
