As the manager of an apartment complex, you may have some concerns about the sheer amount of waste your residents generate. Not only can excess waste negatively impact the experience of your tenants, but it can also cause your community’s environmental footprint to swell.
One simple step toward waste reduction is establishing a recycling program. Crucially, just launching a program is not enough. You also need to take proactive measures to get your residents involved.
If you’ve launched a recycling program at your apartment complex but it’s not yet generating the level of engagement you’d hoped for, don’t worry. There are a few practical steps you can take to boost buy-in among your tenants.
Put Out More Bins
Your residents may be fairly willing to recycle, just so long as they don’t have to venture too far out of their way to do so. If you have a larger complex and only one or two recycling bins, then participation in your recycling program may simply be inconvenient. Adding more recycling areas can significantly increase participation from your residents.
Ensure Regular Pickups
Another important step is ensuring your bins get dumped out regularly. If your recycling area is constantly overflowing with cans and bottles, it’s going to create an eyesore. It’s also going to make it significantly less appealing and less convenient for tenants to take advantage of your recycling program.
Provide Guidance
Do your residents know that you have a recycling program? And are they clear on how to use it? Simply sending out flyers, announcing the new program, can go a long way. So can posting clear signage, instructing residents on what they can and cannot recycle, whether or not they need to break down boxes, etc.
Advocate for the Environment
It may also be helpful to remind your residents of just why recycling is so important. Post information about the environmental benefits of recycling, both throughout your complex and on your social media accounts. You could even highlight some of the financial or aesthetic benefits to your community.
Set a Good Example
Finally, ensure that everyone who’s on staff at your complex leads by example. Everyone on your team, including maintenance workers, should take advantage of the recycling area. Dumping clearly recyclable waste into the main garbage bins will undercut your intentions and compromise the efficacy of your program.
As you consider ways to get a meaningful recycling program up and running, make sure you seek the insight you need from a proven waste and recycling management provider. At WasteXperts, we are a trusted service provider in this field, and would love to talk with you about facilitating a successful recycling program at your apartment complex to speak with our team at WasteXperts, reach out to us at any time.
