Condo Media - November 2014 - 22

ASKED & NAME
COLUMN ANSWERED

Talking Trash
How to Keep a Condo Community Clean

Q

QUESTION: My community has a
trash problem. The area around the
dumpsters is a mess. By trash collection day, and often long before,
garbage bags are piled all around the
dumpsters - sometimes because the
bins are full but often because people
just can't be bothered to lift the lids.
We've posted "keep this area clean"
signs near the dumpsters, regularly
include notes in our newsletter and
on our Web site reminding owners to
dispose of their trash properly, and
we've threatened to ﬁne anyone
caught violating our disposal
rules. Nothing seems to work.
Do you have any suggestions?

unlocking the gate toss their bags over
the fence.
Fining owners who leave their bags
outside the bins can be effective, Connolly has found, "but you have to catch
them." Installing cameras in the trash
area can also work, both in identifying
violators and encouraging compliance.
But the cameras are expensive, he says,
and reviewing the images to identify the
trash delinquents is time consuming.

A

ANSWER: OK, we'll talk
trash with you. It's a messy
job, but someone has to do
it - and James Connolly at
Crowninshield Management
Company has volunteered.
Spoiler alert: He hasn't
found a perfect solution to
the messy dumpster challenge
either, but he says it is an ongoing problem widely shared by
condominium communities.
Some trash disposal services will
actually pick up those loose bags, Connolly says, "but unless you have a very
special, wonderful, unique driver who
will actually get out of his truck," that's
not going to happen. The trash bags
remain where owners toss them after the
bins have been emptied.
Connolly says he's tried many
strategies, including putting the bins
inside locked cages to prevent outsiders from using them. "But someone
always forgets their key," he notes, and
owners who don't want to be bothered

22

CONDO MEDIA * NOVEMBER 2014

Connolly says. Among other obvious
concerns: Sifting through trash would
be onerous work, unpleasant and potentially dangerous for staff, who might
prick their ﬁngers on needles or risk
other injuries.
He suggests a few steps you might
consider to address your trash problem:

1

If the bins are regularly ﬁlled to
overﬂowing, schedule an additional trash pick-up or consider
adding a recycling service if you don't
already have one to reduce the
amount of trash. Of course,
then you'll have to worry
about owners not bothering
to separate their trash and
recycling, but that's a different issue.

2

Simply having a camera in place does
"curb bad behavior," Connolly agrees.
But he cautions against installing an
inexpensive "dummy" camera. Cameras
can instill "a false sense of security," he
says, leading owners to assume incorrectly that the area is monitored and
secure and creating liability concerns for
the association.
Some communities are using DNA
matching to identify owners who fail
to clean up after their pets, "but I can't
see trying to DNA anyone's trash,"

Just assume people
are going to dump
bags around the
dumpsters, and have your
maintenance staff keep the
area clean. If you don't have
maintenance workers, board
members or a committee of
concerned owners might volunteer to do this.

3

Encourage owners to be good
neighbors. Remind them that it
is in everyone's interests to keep
the community clean. These reminders
probably won't be any more effective
for you than they have been in the past,
but they can't hurt. And if you catch
owners in the act of dumping, ﬁne
them. Owners may decide it's worth
the extra effort to put their bags in the
dumpsters, if they know it will cost
them $25 or $50 if they don't. CM
Condo Media - November 2014

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