Missed collections can be really harmful to a variety of businesses because the waste left behind after collection day could end up rotting, spilling over, and costing the company in fines and other penalties. Unfortunately, missed collections can be fairly common. That’s why it is essential to avoid them as much as possible. This post will provide some tips on helping you make sure your bins are collected every time.
Have a routine schedule
You need to make sure that you know what collection schedule your waste management contractor operates on and prepare accordingly. You should inform your employees what days you need to put the bins out (if indeed you need the move them) and make sure you leave the right bin type for that collection day in an accessible space.
So that all your current employees know what the bin collection days are and how to move them, you should consider making this part of their training and enrollment. This should ensure that the right bin is out and ready and won’t be missed for collection.
Make sure you’re properly separating your waste
One of the main reasons business bin collections are missed is because the waste collectors cannot contaminate their trucks with the wrong type of waste. This is because these trucks are taking the waste to a treatment facility in order for it to be disposed of safely or recycled. This would be impossible if, for example, they were on a paper and card collection day and one of the bins they had to pick up was paper and card mixed with food and chemical waste.
So, to avoid this, you need to make sure that you are correctly separating your waste and putting the materials into the correct bins. You need to avoid contamination at all costs for numerous health and safety, legal, and environmental reasons. To find out more about how to best keep your waste separated then head over to our blog post here.
Make sure your bins are not overfilled or overweight
Another big reason waste collectors may fail to empty your bin is that it is either overweight or overfilled/spilling over. This is because each truck can only take so much waste each trip. So if a truck has been collecting other businesses’ bins throughout the day and then they come to yours and it is too heavy or contains too much waste for what the truck can safely handle, then they will have no choice but to leave your bin behind.
Now, to avoid this policy seemingly punishing those who have their bins collected near the end of the trip, every business at any point of the collection needs to have their bins under the weight limit so that it is fair for everyone. So even if your bin is being collected first, if it is overweight it will not be collected, despite the ample room in the truck.
In order to avoid this, you need to conduct regular waste audits in order to accurately predict how much waste you will produce over the coming weeks and whether you may need an additional bin for any of your waste streams. Read more about how to conduct a waste audit here.
Store your bins properly
Another reason your bins might not be collected is that they cannot be reasonably accessed by your waste collector due to poor storage management. If your bins are not stored in a safe place out of the way of the public but still accessible for a collector (or can be moved easily to an area for a collector) then your collection may be missed.
One final reason would also be that if your bins are not stored properly they may become damaged, vandalised, or infested with vermin. Your waste collector will certainly not collect your bins if this is the case. So to avoid this you need to keep the bins and the area clean, and you should consider padlocking the access to them when it is not a collection day.
