What to Ask a Recycling Service You Hire for a Commercial Building

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What to Ask a Recycling Service You Hire for a Commercial Building

13 March 2017
 Categories: , Blog


If you own or manage an office building, production facility, or warehouse, you may want to hire a recycling service in addition to your regular trash collector. This can help keep items out of landfills and cut down on the pollutants released when certain items decompose. Note a few important questions to ask a potential recycling service so you know you hire the right company, and know what's involved in using their services.

Ask how liquids and oils of any sort need to be packaged

Recycling services can often pick up liquids, including gas and other automotive fluids, cooking oils, paints and solvents, and the like. However, they may have strict rules about how these liquids need to be contained; this can include a metal barrel versus plastic, one with a specially locking lid, and something with a vent so fumes don't build up inside the barrel. You may also need to keep certain liquids separate rather than mixing them together even if they seem related, such as keeping gasoline separate from other automotive fluids and keeping paints separate from solvents. Always ask about these requirements before collecting any fluids for recycling, to ensure they're safely stored and always picked up.

Note if there is any condition that would keep materials from being recycled

Most metals can be recycled even if they're coated or painted in any way, but very rusted metals may not be good for recycling. Metal shavings may also need a certain container for your recycling company to pick them up, rather than just dumping them in a recycling bin; this will reduce the risk of injury when the recycling is collected. Most forms of paper can be recycled unless they're coated with a type of plastic, such as is common with packaging. Always ask about these conditions and restrictions so you can keep such items out of your recycling bin.

Ask about specialty pickups, such as around the holidays or busy seasons

Always ask a recycler if they will take Christmas trees after the holidays, and especially before you assume these need to be put in the trash! Also, if you have a busy season for your office or production facility, note how this can be handled as you don't want to assume that you should just overfill the recycling bin; this may keep the company from collecting the recycling or you may face a fine of some sort. The recycling company may want to provide you with an additional, temporary bin instead, to accommodate a busy time or the holiday season.

About Me
How to Choose Fire Damage Contractors

Hi, my name is Sue. Last year we had a significant fire in our house. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but the damage that the fire and smoke did to our home was heartbreaking. We didn’t know where to start to get things cleaned up and restored. There was so much work to do and we didn’t feel confident about putting some things right ourselves. In the end, we hired specialist damage contractors to clean things up and get things back to how they were before the fire. We spent a fair amount of time choosing contractors — it’s important to find a company that has the skills you need at a fair price. I started this site to pass on some of the things we learned when we were choosing contractors. I hope it helps if you’ve been unlucky enough to have to deal with home damage.

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