Communal Trash

Started by RichardS31 • 11 replies • 416 views

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RichardS31 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2

Posted:

We are a small 40 unit townhome community and utilize a centralized dumpster for trash. We are having an ongoing problem with illegal trash at our community. We are spending excessive amounts of money with "bulk trash" pick up companies due to residents dumping mattresses, furniture, and even appliances at our centralized dumpster location. We have considered the following:

*Installing a video system to record the offenders but given the fact that we do not have power at our dumpster location, and a nearest "common" meter is over 1000' feet away the cost to install the video system is extremely expensive.

*Going to curbside pick up: two problems with this solution. 1) A lot of our residents are only here on the weekends (it's a coastal community) and we would end up with trash cans possibly scattered throughout the community because no one would be here during the week to put them up after the trash pick up. 2) Some of the units have extremely small courtyards and they do not have the room for the trash cans.

I would love to hear how others have solved the trash problem.

Thanks!

JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631

Posted:

You don't need power. Get wireless cameras.

JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnT38 on 07/25/2022 3:34 AM
You don't need power. Get wireless cameras.

I forgot to add this link:

https://www.amazon.com/wireless-battery-security-camera/s?k=wireless+battery+security+camera

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

I also live in a townhouse community (in the city) and unfortunately, I don't think one can ever fix the problem with illegal dumping - if there's a dumpster, someone will find a way to toss their crap in it. To wit - my office building has its dumpster in a locked shed and people STILL find a way to get in or they just leave out whatever. A mattress was in the shed for about eight months until recently).

There's another conversation on this website about a similar problem - over there, I suggested a camera (it's what our community eventually did).
Make sure it's tamperproof and captures a large area, as some people back up their vehicles to the dumpster so the camera won't catch the license plate. I don't know if there are cameras that are solar-operated - you may want to look into that to help save money, or get one that's battery-operated (you'll probably need a specialized one, as opposed to what you buy at the drugstore). I also wonder if a motion-detection light might also help - these folks may think it'll automatically turn on the camera and leave.

At one point I also suggested to our board that we dump the dumpsters and get curbside pickup for the entire community - right now, there are only two streets, including mine, that have them. However, we have the same problem as you do with homes where the courtyards are too small and our board treasurer said the trash company might balk at making dozens of extra stops to pick up all the trash cans instead of going to eight dumpsters).

The other conversation also had a post from LetA who spoke of a dumpster shed with keyfob access - that may fix some of the problem or people will just dump the stuff outside. I don't know if that would be an option for a community your size (I'm not sure how it would work for my community wich is larger, although I plan to bring the suggestion to our board).

There have also been people who drive through the community looking for junk they can turn around and sell, which helps us because we have to pay for removal if the junk winds up in the dumpster (the city truck won't pick it up). That could be an option for your community in paying for a weekly drive-through.

Finally, might there be a way you could talk to the city about changing the pickup day and/or time? If people are using their homes on the weekends anyway, why not change the time to, say, Monday morning before 10 am? It would be the homeowner's responsibility to get their trash in the dumpster by that time and after that, the shed would be locked and not opened again until, say, Friday or Saturday morning. Again, that won't completely resolve the problem, but it could slow it down.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

RichardS31 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnT38 on 07/25/2022 3:36 AM

Posted By JohnT38 on 07/25/2022 3:34 AM
You don't need power. Get wireless cameras.

I forgot to add this link:

https://www.amazon.com/wireless-battery-security-camera/s?k=wireless+battery+security+camera

We had considered those. I may be confused but do you not need a wifi connection for those to work. Where our dumpster is located there is not a wifi network that we can access.
We are discussing solar powered cameras that upload to the cloud via a cellular connection.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Some wireless cameras require wifi.
Some wireless cameras send their info to a hub that is within range and connected to the internet via cable through your network.

If it were me, I would stick with what you are currently looking at.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

You may have to end up running power to the dumpster coral or move the dumpster corral. Sadly in this say and age nothing is sacred. Perhaps threatening to raise assessments
to get the owners spooked into doing the right thing might force them to do the right thing. As I posted in another thread, consider going to individual bins at the home and removing the
communal dumpster, or gate the corral and add RFID fob locks. It might be possible to run the system off a solar panel and a deep cycle battery, but in the end you should have a
dedicated power source to energize such a system.

JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By LetA on 07/25/2022 4:24 PM
You may have to end up running power to the dumpster coral or move the dumpster corral. Sadly in this say and age nothing is sacred. Perhaps threatening to raise assessments
to get the owners spooked into doing the right thing might force them to do the right thing. As I posted in another thread, consider going to individual bins at the home and removing the
communal dumpster, or gate the corral and add RFID fob locks. It might be possible to run the system off a solar panel and a deep cycle battery, but in the end you should have a
dedicated power source to energize such a system.

Why do you feel the solution the OP is looking at won't work?

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Wireless cameras ARE a good idea, but they aren't a silver bullet. We had to move our camera twice before we found a spot that made it very difficult to tamper with. Running power isn't as simple as it sounds - if there aren't any lines in the area, the electric company will have to install them and that can be very expensive. Even then, there are people who really don't care if there are cameras around - lots of people have RING systems, including the doorbell camera and they've still become victims of "porch pirates." I believe our system does run on solar power and while solar is very effective, the sun will have to keep shining so the panels will run all night. That might be a problem if you have overcast days for several days in a row.

Still, using them CAN deter a lot of the behavior and if you can get your costs cut in half because the sofas, mattresses couches, bed frames, old carpet and a toilet won't be there (all that and more wound up in and around our dumpsters), that's a start.

And there are also homeowners who have the out of sight, out of mind attitude - these are vacation homes and so they probably aren't as concerned about this compared to how they might feel if they had to look at this stuff every week. Homeowners who live in HOAs also tend to be very very cheap. They think the assessment they paid when they moved in will never, ever increase and howl "I don't see where the money's going", even though you've published monthly income/expense reports, tried to educate people on reserves and so on.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnT38 on 07/25/2022 4:52 PM

Why do you feel the solution the OP is looking at won't work?

Because people are fallible, the only way to side track that is to hit them in the pocketbook.

JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By LetA on 07/26/2022 12:30 PM

Posted By JohnT38 on 07/25/2022 4:52 PM

Why do you feel the solution the OP is looking at won't work?

Because people are fallible, the only way to side track that is to hit them in the pocketbook.

I have no idea what this has to do with using a solar powered camera instead of running power to the location.

Here's one that would do what the OP needs:

"[100% Wire-free Solar Security Camera] - Poweful solar panel provides non-stop power for the outdoor camera. Large-capacity battery can standby over 6 months. Adjustable solar panel helps it better absorb sunshine. No need to recharge frequently. 100% cordless, easy to be installed anywhere outside. IP66 waterproof material ensures it can work properly in all bad weathers."

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Rechargeable-Security-Detection-Waterproof/dp/B07V1C2YDZ

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

There is an out of the way place that I like to go fishing and there is some sort of device that is run with two 100W panels and a battery.
Here's a curveball, I recently went to Big Bear and we had to drive almost 2 miles to dump our trash.

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