We all know how important recycling is. What kind of recycling practices do you have at your facility? Do you recycle paper in the office? Do you have places around the facility where tenants can add items like paper, soda cans or water bottles?

How about recycling other stuff, like furniture, clothes and other household items? U-Haul recently introduced a reuse program that gives tenants another option to discard old clothes and other household items. They've set up donation bins for the Salvation Army and Goodwill so tenants can donate these items rather than throwing them in the dumptster or leaving them behind in a unit.

Scary stat: It takes a million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. How many glass bottles are being thrown in your dumpster?

We do not have dumpsters or recycling bins for tenants at our facility. The tenants are supposed to carry out everything they carry in. That works most of the time. We decided years ago that bins and dumpsters are a liability around here. Of course on my walks around the property, I generally do find some trash and/or recyclables. When I find stuff in a vacated unit I do my best to recycle or re-home it. If it is truly trash, it goes to the dump. Cans, bottles, and paper all get recycled, as well as clothes, furniture and most appliances which usually go to our homeless facility or to the recycling center.

Everything in the office gets recycled.

"How many glass bottles are being thrown in your dumpster?" zero

Our dumpsters are off limits!!!

When we took over this place the inmates were running the place and they would leave whatever they wanted by the dumpster - I got tired of dealing with other peoples pee soaked mattresses and busted up furniture so I changed the rules.

It has taken some time, but they are finally learning.

As for recycling - like geraldine1051 - if you brought it here take it with you!

The only exception is that we are an e-waste recycling drop off location. We do require you to fill out some paperwork before you can drop things off so no "dumping".

funny story about that -- this guy shows up with a pickup full of TV's and other stuff - told him he had to fill out the paperwork with address and phone number -- he left. Never saw him again.

Some people get upset when they find out that we don't pay them to recycle.

__________________
Wayne
Jamestown, ND


All arguments can be resolved ... with high explosives and Humor!!!

Wayne, tell me more about e-waste recycling...

It's really simple for us.

First off - E-Waste is almost any electrical devices - examples - computers, toasters ovens, microwaves, phones etc..
We can accept almost anything with an electrical cord.
We do not accept large appliances - example - washers, dryers, freezers etc..

We have a company locally that is a major E-Waste recycle and will stop by and pick up whatever you have.

We just provide a location for people to drop things off. I have set aside a 10x15 space for this purpose.

When I get enough for a pallet or two I call them and they come pick it up.

To prevent dumping (or stolen items) I require them to fill out paperwork with name, address, phone and what you are dropping off.

It's better then having it all end up in the landfill or worse - in the rivers.or desert.

__________________
Wayne
Jamestown, ND


All arguments can be resolved ... with high explosives and Humor!!!

Thanks, Wayne. If you're in California, you can check this website telling you how to get involved.

Anyone else involved in this type of recycling? I know many, many cities and counties, especially small ones, are not doing ANY recycling at all. Homeowners who are into recycling have tow their own stuff to a recycle center. And some are asked to PAY to recycle. What's the incentive there? Seems like there should be more from our government in every state to make recycling a priority.

Hi Amy,

They changed the URL; it's now: http://www1.ciwmb.ca.gov/Electronics...lerSearch.aspx

They tucked in the "1" in the www after some site maintenance.

We recycle also, CA is making it costlier to not recycle, more later gotta run for now.

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Gina 6k
CochraneStorage dot com
Morgan Hill, California
twitter.com/CochraneStorage

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!
I am not an attorney, just an experienced manager who is willing to share what I have learned. Your thoughts, practices or opinions may vary and neither of us may be right.

We have a donation unit set up for a local nonprofit. It works wonders for items that people would normally leave behind and provides traffic to our site for people to drop off items for the shelter.

I am thinking about setting up recycling bins for our/tenant use next to the dumpster.

As for the dumpster, I have an ongoing battle with one of our landscapers who seems to think our property is his for his personal business use. I've just looked into a locking dumpster to alleviate this problem.

StorGal

More & more there are surcharges being tacked onto utility bills for municipalities that do not meet State standards for recycling waste. The waste management companies are required to recycle certain percentages of the garbage/refuse they haul. With this in mind, the city of San Jose for example REQUIRES each physical address to pay for garbage collection & recycle fees; even if it is a vacant lot! I'm sure other cities do as well.

There are so many legal aspects involved, but basically it boils down to this; if a community recycles certain percentages of their waste, it either obtains funds or, at least is not penalized based on the percentage of recycled materials processed versus what ends up in a landfill. This varies across the State from what little I know.

We recycle paper, mixed paper & cardboard at our facility. Our small dumpster is secured behind privacy fencing for aesthetics, and our line is; "You hauled it in, you haul it out." We had a can recycle container near our soda machine, but found most people were stuffing it with fast food garbage, or leaving huge bags of garbage from their units stacked up right near our office that we pulled the recycle container for awhile.

As for e-waste so many local charity groups are fund raising via the e-waste program that we've not had the need for a collection point here. Everyone is struggling for the dollar and the e-waste recycle fundraiser has been a hot commodity around here for the last couple of years .

We are currently undertaking a new process which as it develops I'll keep you all apprised of the process and the results. And that's all you get for now.

Any other items of serviceable use are donated by our auction buyers. We rarely have items left behind as we offer refunds of unused rent on units which are left in the condition it was rented in. Take all your stuff away & get a refund, leave it behind you pay our cost of hauling it off.

When a customer asks about donating items we direct them to the appropriate local charity and let them donate what they want. Sometimes a charity will come to the site to pick up items as well.

On rare occasions when there is a local disaster of varying proportions, we set up a donation unit specifically for the victims of said disaster. In our area so far the instances have all been fire related. From the looks of things, the browning of the hills already, and the talk of our 3rd year of drought and water rationing we may be in for a very long fire season!

__________________
Gina 6k
CochraneStorage dot com
Morgan Hill, California
twitter.com/CochraneStorage

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!
I am not an attorney, just an experienced manager who is willing to share what I have learned. Your thoughts, practices or opinions may vary and neither of us may be right.

Like most of the comments, Pack it in and pack it out.
We don't have a public Dumpster...
We have set up a process of using Freecycle, I have found that using this not only helps people get rid of stuff they might leave behind, it also allows for some indirect marketing.
Check out freecycle @
http://www.freecycle.org/
Bj Lee