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Waste contamination costs recycling facilities alone roughly $300 million per year, and a good portion of that is passed to customers as fines. The last thing you want is to land a hefty contamination fee because you put the wrong thing in your front load dumpster.
That’s why today we’ll tell you everything you need to know about what you should and shouldn’t put in front load dumpsters.
From motor oil and pesticides to paper, plastic, and household waste, don’t risk your wallet, health, and the environment with bad waste practices any longer!
We’ll cover:
Let’s get started.
Here’s a list of everything that you shouldn’t put in your front load dumpsters, whether you own them or you’ve rented them from a waste management company:
As you’d expect, it’s a bad idea to put any hazardous materials in your dumpster. Anything that poses a risk to you, other humans, animals, or the environment in general if it were to be dumped into a landfill is not only irresponsible to throw away without appropriate waste disposal, it’s also outright dangerous for you and your local area.
Whether it’s cleaning products, pesticides, fertilizer, chemicals, paint, batteries, or asbestos, the only way to dispose of hazardous waste is to check with your local authority to see what their guidelines are. This could mean going to a designated drop-off spot (eg, a battery-specific recycling point), or contacting a company which specializes in recycling or dealing with those particular materials.
After all, you don’t want to be the reason harmful chemicals are running into your groundwater, right?
Similarly, tires need a special disposal method and can’t be put in a front load dumpster. Heck, if you contact your local auto dealer (and the tires aren’t in awful condition) they might even be willing to buy them! Alternatively, they should be able to tell you about your local tire recycling programs.
Electronics and appliances are similar to hazardous waste (and sometimes even count as hazardous) due to the chemicals involved which, if they’re broken apart, could leak out and cause damage or health risks. Again, your local authority should be able to point you towards your nearest electronics recycling point.
Items that are too large to wholly fit in a front load dumpster without it shutting are better suited to being put in a roll-off container. Some dumpster collection companies will refuse to take over-full dumpsters, and the main advantage of them over a roll-off container is to fully cover the waste inside, so this is more a case of using the wrong tool for the job at hand.
Plant waste is the main outlier in this list, as you can technically put it in a front load dumpster. The reason you shouldn’t is that plant waste can take up a huge amount of landfill space until it decomposes, and the conditions of landfill aren’t the best to promote that decomposition. You’re much better served by composting your plant waste either yourself or through local gardening or composting programs - that way you can use your dumpsters for waste that can’t be broken down so easily!
We’ve already covered how disposing of the wrong items can be harmful or even dangerous (if you dispose of hazardous waste), but ultimately nothing justifies a business decision like money. Thankfully, you cut costs (or rather, avoid fines) by sticking to these dumpster waste guidelines.
The main reason to care about what you put in your front load dumpster is that you can incur some nasty extra fees if you breach any rules or regulations. These mostly depend on your local regulations and any extra limitations applied by whoever you’re renting the dumpster from, but tend to boil down to this:
If you throw restricted items into your dumpster, you’re going to get bitten by contamination charges.
You could have to pay anything up to several hundred dollars depending on how bad your infraction is, as the waste management company that owns the dumpster will need to retrieve it, empty it, process all of the contaminated trash inside, and thoroughly clean it before it can be used again. If it’s your own dumpster you’ll instead be getting fined by your local waste authorities!
On the flipside, here’s what you absolutely should be putting into your front load dumpsters:
Food waste is biodegradable and needs to be contained to prevent bad odors, but you should still be composting whatever you can to avoid adding to landfill. Non-compostible food waste such as meat, fish, bones, fats, and dairy products are fine to throw in the dumpster though, as these decompose slowly and risk attracting vermin or causing health hazards.
Any household or general trash that’s bound for landfill should also go in a front load dumpster. Food wrappers, non-recyclable packaging, broken stationery, and so on are all totally fine to throw in there, as they’re all bound for the same landfill fate.
Speaking of landfill, any small construction debris (small rubble pieces, etc.) with that destination is also fine to put in front load dumpsters, albeit with a warning. If you’re handling a lot of rubble you’d be better off getting a roll-off container and putting all of the debris together, as there are still weight limits to the trash you throw away.
Recyclables are another great choice to store for collection in a dumpster, whether it’s paper and cardboard, plastic, or even smaller pieces of metal waste. As long as you’re able to fully close the dumpster to cover your trash and the contents aren’t so heavy that you’re risking extra overweight charges, these are all ideal uses for front load dumpsters.
All of the above is only true with one condition; you should never mix-and-match the types of waste in a single dumpster. At the very least you can’t mix landfill-bound waste with recyclables, or put different kinds of recyclables (ie, paper and plastic) in the same dumpster, as this results in all non-landfill waste becoming contaminated or making it impossible to easily sort through the recyclables for processing.
Instead, have one dumpster for general landfill waste, another for paper and cardboard, one for plastic, and one for metal (or any combination of those options depending on what kinds of waste you produce).
This should make it easier for your team to track which dumpster they need to use for the waste they’re throwing away, as you can designate specific areas for them to prevent confusion.
No matter how well you manage the types of trash going into your dumpsters, you’re always going to be limited by the reliability of your waste collection service. You need a waste management company that uses a fleet of state-of-the-art trucks and experienced drivers to collect your trash on time, every time. You need a company that is passionate about keeping garbage off the streets, and caring for the local community and environment at the same time.
You need Trashco Inc.
Whether you’re looking for reliable waste collections, the best prices for dumpster rentals, or you have questions (that our friendly team of experts is more than happy to answer), Trashco Inc. is your number 1 waste management company in the Laredo and wider Texas area.
