Common Area Trash Problem

Maybe you need more dumpsters around your community - why not talk with the private company (and maybe the county?) to see where they might be placed.

I've posted several times about trash in my community and some of the suggestions I've received include:

Placing more dumpsters around the community - your private trash collector may be able to give you some ideas on where they might be placed and then you can look into costs

Having a once a month heavy trash dump day, where the trash collector can put out a large container and people can dump stuff like mattresses instead of putting them in the dumpster (unlike MY community!)

Installing recycling bins - perhaps if people had a place for the aluminum cans, newspapers, cardboard and what not, that can reduce some of the crap that's going in the community bins

Speaking of crap, some communities have installed dog poo stations with bags - that could keep the mess of the sidewalks and lawns. Encourage people to put this shit in their own damn trash!

Finally, hitting people in the wallet is a great way to persuade them to straighten up. Tell people the board is considering hiring people to walk through once or twice a week to pick up litter - and the cost WILL be reflected in their fees. Show people how much is spent on trash pickup, with pictures of what the mess looks like, and then perhaps they'll change their behavior.

If you find something that works, let us know - in my community, I think I'm going to have to persuade the board to post something on our website about those wheeled trash containers the city requires - too many people (like my next door neighbor) fill the thing up to the top and beyond and we're getting too much litter blowing around.

We did that, but the problem continues in ebbs and flows (this time of year, the renters are beginning to move out and that's when we start seeing sofas, cardboard and mattresses all over the place). Try photographing the mess and put it in your newsletter and on your website - not attractive, but sometimes people need to see what slobs they are. Perhaps it'll encourage some people to talk to their neighbors if they see them using up all the dog poo bags. And make sure to talk about the price and cost per owner and pass all of it on to them.

Speaking of photos, I remember a year or two ago, I saw a story about a lady in Canada (or was it on the East Coast?) who got so mad about some of her fellow condo owners and their dogs using the common areas as a toilet that she actually took photos of the dogs (mess and all) and posted it online. I don't how the story ended, but I remember some people were upset at being found out that they weren't nice neighbors!