Calculating How Many Waste Dumpsters Your Property Should Have Available

There are countless differing thoughts regarding how to calculate the total number of waste dumpsters needed in an apartment community. However, let’s look at a computational method based on established data from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) that begins with the metric of the amount of waste produced daily, per individual. Please keep in mind that the type of apartment community, be it hi-rise, mid-rise, garden style, and available space are also important considerations in any computation.

Steps:

Determine how much average waste/trash individuals create daily.

1. Per the EPA (Environments Protection Agency) the average American generates 4.9 lbs. of trash per day. 
2. Additionally, you need to understand how many pounds of trash is in a yard; for typical daily trash, we can go with an average of 350 lbs. per yard. 
3. So, 4.9 pounds per person per day ÷ (divided by) 350 lbs. per yard x 7 days per week. = 0.098 cubic yards per person each week.

Next, extrapolate the yard volume of waste per individual to your total number of residents.

1. The number of residents is of more importance than the total number of units would be (1,2,3 bedroom units, you see the point).
2. If you have 500 residents living in your 200-unit apartment site, then 500 people x 0.098 yards per week = 49 yards per week of garbage.

Next, determine how many waste dumpsters you need, so you will need to.

1. Select the size of the dumpster you desire.
2. Decide on how many waste pickups per week.

A 4-yard dumpster collected once per week vs. a 6-yard dumpster:

1. 49 yards of garbage divided by 4 yards divided by 2 collections weekly = 7 dumpsters (98 divided by 4 divided by 2 collections = 6.1) dumpsters so 7, 4-yard dumpsters would be needed. 
2. However, if you have 8-yard dumpsters then 49/8/2 = 4 dumpsters would be needed. 

An additional factor to consider, when you are calculating the number of dumpsters needed is to consider how far a distance people would have to walk to them. There is usually an optimum number of the correct size dumpsters. Other factors can include what your local municipality requires for multifamily sites, do you have garbage with or without compaction, is recycling or composting is required, and many more. 

After you determine the number and size of dumpsters that you will initially need at your property, you should then consider using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and analytics for your management of resident waste. 

Adding AI and IoT Camera-Based Technology

The RealPage Smart Waste Management Solution integrates camera-based IoT, and state-of-the-art waste metering technology, with AI (Artificial Intelligence), to optimize dumpster capacity and avoid fines for contaminated recycling. Needless expenses for missed hauler pickups, waste overages and recycle contamination fines have been shown can cost a property $125-150 per unit per year. The RealPage Smart Waste Management Solution can cut these costs on average by 40%

The RealPage Smart Waste feature highlighted in Forbes Magazine is an exciting innovation that supports multifamily properties to reduce overall waste costs. s seen in the solution video, it has been demonstrated how RealPage Smart Waste can generate annual cost reductions of up to 40% on your property waste program bills through three key actions:

Contamination fees that can range up to $220 per occurrence and are already trending past the $300 million dollar mark nationally are one of the key industry problems we solve for. The AI in the solution identifies multiple categories of contaminants and alerts property staff to remove them before your waste hauler can charge for them.

An additional challenge for multifamily properties is dumpster fullness levels. Nationwide these fullness levels average only 46%, meaning properties are getting charged for many needless pickups. Our solution monitors the fullness level of each dumpster to provide easy-to-understand visual feedback and alerts so that staff can quickly optimize service schedules. Within this category, another issue we solve is artificial fullness. Studies have shown that 79% of the contents of recycling dumpsters are comprised of un-collapsed cardboard. With Smart Waste identifying and alerting this problem, properties can quickly break down cardboard to maximize the available space within a waste container.

The third key problem addressed by the RealPage Smart Waste solution is vendor service optimization. The waste hauler industry typically misses more than 10% of all pickups, and we have recorded instances where some properties were missing more than 50% of their pickups without realizing it or having a way to validate it, resulting in a huge number of excess pickup charges (e.g., pickups properties were charged for, but which never happened). The AI in our waste cameras detect pickups and compares them against the service schedule and fullness levels to optimize service and eliminate misses.

In summary, Smart Waste combines a dumpster-fixed camera working with a cloud-based solution from RealPage that automatically monitors the fullness, content, contamination levels, and location of each dumpster on a property, it enables clients to manage:

• Day-to-day Waste Container Monitoring
• Contamination levels
• Fullness at pickup
• Waste pickups missed
• Recycle diversion ratios
• Alerts and notifications
• Analytics and Reporting

RealPage is here to help tackle challenges just like these, if you would like to learn more about RealPage Smart Waste please do not hesitate to private message me.

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