Building an Apartment Complex? Don’t Delay Waste Management Planning

Picture this: You’re a Project Manager overseeing the development of a multifamily complex. Things have been running smoothly and the facility is scheduled to deliver in the coming weeks. Everything is accounted for except for one thing- Trash. Unbeknownst to many construction professionals, this is far too late to begin discussions regarding waste management. Waste is a significant component of operation in an apartment complex, and failing to plan for it is a bad practice that can leave you saddled with a substantial amount of preventable expenses.

There are several problems you may experience. One of those problems may be inadequate space in the trash room:

“Trash rooms are often an afterthought when designing multi-level residential buildings. Most compactor quotes use standard-sized containers. If the garbage room’s dimensions force you to go with a custom size container, this can affect your quoted price.”
– Jim McCarthy, Account Executive – Broker Division

Sometimes people fail to consider how the trash is going to get from the compactor to the street/alley for pickup. Perhaps the size of your trash room is adequate, but you have spatial problems elsewhere:

“We had an apartment compactor where the room was big enough for the compactor and the container, but when they pulled the container out of the room, the hallway was not wide enough to get the container out without it damaging the wall.”
– Jessica Rowoldt, Regional Sales Manager – Midwest

Apartment Compactor from Jeff’s example w/ chute feed modification

Space isn’t the only thing that needs consideration. Even when you plan appropriately for space, you may still encounter other problems:

“We recently installed a compactor at an apartment complex where the trash chute was 4 inches off the wall. Apartment compactors require a trash chute to be at least 12 inches off the wall because the compactor container is about 8 inches wider than the compactor itself. For this to work, we needed to make costly modifications to the compactor that could have easily been prevented if the chute was placed correctly”
– Jeff Leis, Site Survey Specialist

Over the years, our reps have run into numerous issues where architectural design flaws made installing a compactor more complicated than it had to be. The problems mentioned here are some of the more common ones but are by no means an exhaustive list of issues you may experience. Fixing these issues generally requires costly equipment modifications that will make you regret dismissing trash as an afterthought. The good news is that these problems are entirely preventable by planning for waste early on. Doing so will ensure that you won’t encounter any design issues pertaining to your trash service. Don’t let preventable problems push you over budget.

Have a project that you’d like to discuss with us? Contact us today!