Talking Trash - Why buy a commercial compactor?

By Kenzo Kawasaki

Image courtesy wikimedia

Let’s say you own a business.   It can be anything from a retail establishment to a warehouse distribution business, to a restaurant. You have to pay the waste management/waste hauling company every time they come by to haul away your garbage. But your business ebbs and flows, which means sometimes your dumpster is overflowing and sometimes it’s only half full. Like it or not, you’re going to have to pay the same amount either way. You know that compactors can help reduce the number of pickups and in the end it can save you money.  But what you might not know is that with an internet connection and a few smart sensors, you can save even more money by scheduling a pickup only when your dumpster is actually full. How much can this save your business from a trash hauling standpoint; 10% 20%? 30%? With this kind of technology, you could cut your trash bill by as much as half.

How do you know if a compactor is right for you?

Installing a commercial trash compactor at your business location is not something that happens overnight. You might have to pull three phase power over to where you plan to put the installation.  The compactor needs to be properly anchored to the ground, which means you probably have to pour a concrete pad as a foundation for the machine, because a commercial compactor can weight nearly 12 tons when full.

Once you’ve sunk quite a bit of money into all this, how long will it take to pay the nut back? Say you’ve spent $30,000 on the installation and the compactor. A typical dumpster can hold 6 yards of trash. A dumpster with a compactor can hold 5 times as much. So if you go from 1 trash haul per week with a dumpster to once per month with a compactor, you can save at least 30% of your yearly trash bill. Since the national average in 2017 for a dumpster pickup was $345, this represents a saving of $1,380 per month.  Multiply this by twelve and you could save up to $16,560 per year. At that rate, the break-even point to pay off the compactor can be as little as 2-3 years. The trick is to ask yourself a few questions:

     

Image courtesy USAF

1.       How often does your dumpster get hauled currently?  (and is it filled to capacity?) – If you’re looking for a way to maximize the use of your dumpster without risking an overflow, a commercial compactor could be just the thing.  Especially if the bulk of the items routinely deposited in your dumpster are cardboard, plastic or lumber, a compactor could significantly increase the amount of material you can safely and securely pack into your dumpster.

      2.       How much would it save you if you only had to have your trash hauled half as often? – Not only can a compactor help you maximize the use of your trash receptacle, it will also help you reduce the frequency that you need to have your dumpster emptied and the trash hauled away.  Depending on the kind of refuse you routinely produce, you could see your hauling bill cut in half.

      3.       Has your dumpster ever been filled to overflowing? – Aside from being unsightly, windblown trash can be both a health risk and a fire hazard.  It also tends to make your workplace look much less professional when trash is lying on the ground.  If you want to make a good impression to the public, as well as customers, prospects and neighboring businesses, keeping your parking lot clean is the first step. 

      4.       Have you noticed vermin like rodents and insects on or near your dumpster? – When it comes to refuse, people aren’t the only one who take notice.  So does vermin that find your trash as appealing as a motel with a vacancy sign.  Open dumpsters invite everything from rodents to bugs to set up housekeeping.  Once established, this breeding ground is a base-camp for vermin to begin the slow but steady invasion of your workplace.  One of the benefits of having a commercial compactor is it precludes vermin from taking up residence inside your dumpster. 

      5.       Do any unauthorized users dump their trash in your dumpster? – Another problem many businesses have are freeloaders who think nothing of dumping unauthorized refuse in their dumpster.  While this is a boon to these freeloaders, what it means is that the problem is anything but free to the business owner who gets the privilege of hauling unauthorized trash away at their expense.  It also means the possibility of coming to work one morning only to find a dumpster overflowing with somebody else’s trash. 

 Waste Equipment Won’t Just Save You Money, it can Make You Money

Image courtesy flickr

Business owners are always trying to find ways to maximize their profitability.  For some businesses,   Why throw away money when your packaging can be baled and recycled to become an income source? A vertical baler can be configured to help you turn some of your trash into cash while doing the right thing for the planet at the same time.

their trash can literally become a previously untapped treasure.

Here’s another way a commercial compactor can save you money, by reducing your insurance premiums.  If you own a business, you undoubtedly have commercial insurance that protects you from such things as fire, personal injury, and workman’s comp.  The rates you are charged and the premiums your business pays are predicated on risk.  Every time your employees tote the trash out to the dumpster, they run the risk of injuring themselves.  Every time a customer walks past an overflowing dumpster, they could easily slip and fall.  If you’ve ever seen trash blowing around inside your warehouse when the doors were open, this is a potential fire hazard.  Eliminating these hazards will do more than make your business much more attractive to the public, it could also save your business money in insurance premiums.

Another way a commercial compactor can help your business is by saving space.  Retailers and small manufacturers can appreciate the fact that not only do their trash receptacles take up valuable floor space, so too does the discarded packing material that much of their inventory arrives in.  Even in the best of times, dealing with this jetsam can be a real problem.  During holidays, the clutter can be even worse.  One of the ways that many retailers and manufacturers can dramatically reduce the space needed to deal with this problem is to install a commercial compactor with a garbage chute that allows employees to immediately dispose of this clutter without wasting an inch of valuable space.

If You Have a Trash Problem, We Have the Solution

Just as nobody appreciates it when people talk trash, nobody likes to contemplate the problems that can be caused by trash.  If your business is experiencing any of the situations I mentioned above, I urge you to contact me for a free consultation that could help you eliminate bottlenecks, improve safety, beautify your workplace and maybe even help you turn your trash into cash.

Kenzo Kawasaki is president of BC Hydraulic Services, a commercial trash compactor service company based in Jacksonville, Florida.