Image Alt Text: Trash Near Door
Washington, D.C., is known as one of the top places to celebrate the holidays, but it also comes with an unspoken problem for many renters: too much trash during the holiday season.
Disposing of all of that packaging material (shipping boxes), wrapping paper, and food waste improperly can cause you to have overflowing trash cans, pest problems, and ultimately, potentially cost you money on your security deposit.
Read this guide as it provides information to help you dispose of your holiday waste properly to protect your finances and keep your community clean.
The Holiday Waste Surge: The Typical Year-End Waste
This holiday season comes with a lot of cheer and a lot of waste. Some of these may be harmless leftovers, while others can be packaging that can overwhelm your building’s system. To make sanitation easier for you, you need to either find the best ways to minimize waste or dispose of it properly.
Here’s what you’re dealing with and how to manage them:
Shipping Boxes
Cardboard from online orders takes up tremendous amounts of space in your community’s recycling bin. To minimize the amount of space used in your recycling bin, flatten each box as much as possible, remove all plastic inserts that come with each order (i.e., packing slips), as well as the Styrofoam inserts. The removal of these items will help to ensure they are disposed of appropriately in the trash.
Wrapping Papers
A lot of people do not know whether or not their wrapping papers can be recycled. In D.C., there is a simple method to determine if your wrapping paper may be recycled. If it rips like regular paper, then it may be recycled.
Wrapping papers with a metallic coating, foil, plastic, or glitter on them cannot be recycled. Ribbons, bows, and adhesives are also not recyclable and should go into the trash. Careful sorting is necessary as contaminating even one load of recycling could result in the entire load being sent back to the facility.
Food Waste
Excess organic waste from holiday meals can create unpleasant odors and quickly attract pests (insects, rodents) if disposed of improperly. Food scraps must be placed in secure, tightly sealed plastic bags prior to being disposed of by placing them in the trash chute/bin.
To minimize odor and pest issues in your apartment, consider placing your food scraps in a designated, lidded kitchen storage container. This should hold all of your food scraps until they are taken outside.
Decluttered Items
Old items may need to be discarded to make space for new gifts. The act of leaving old furniture, electronic equipment, or bags of clothing adjacent to dumpsters is considered illegal dumping.
There are several non-profit organizations in DC that accept donations of gently used clothing and other household goods. In order to properly dispose of large bulk trash items, residents must contact their property manager to arrange for a scheduled bulk trash pickup.
Proper waste management in rentals is highly encouraged to prevent bin overflow and maintain the cleanliness of the property. Failing to do so might not only make the place look messy but also attract legal fines.
Possible Security Deposit Deductions
Image Alt Text: Woman Shocked Looking at Laptop
Failing to properly clean up after yourself during the festive period can cause a deduction from your security deposit. Here are some legal ways you can be penalized:
Improper Bulky Item Disposal
Illegal dumping occurs when tenants leave furniture, mattresses, or other electronic items by the side of dumpsters. In such an event, the owner will have to call in a special pickup and pay the costs; those charges are usually assessed to the tenant as a deduction.
Therefore, tenants can either utilize the city’s bulk trash collection service or hire a licensed hauler themselves. However, they must first obtain permission from their property manager to place them in the dumpster.
Bin Contamination
Putting plastic trash bags into your recycling bin or putting non-recyclable paper packaging inside your cardboard box contaminates the whole batch of items.
Property owners may incur fines for contamination from their waste service, and many times those fines are passed directly to the resident(s) who contaminated the loads. Additionally, contaminated bins often sit at the curb filled and unemptied, creating a nuisance for all.
Pest Infestation Risk
Rodents and other pests, such as cockroaches, are attracted to overflowing trash cans that contain food waste without being bagged.
If pest control measures become necessary due to a pest infestation and the source can be identified as a result of poor garbage disposal habits from a particular resident, the cost associated with hiring a professional exterminator will be paid for by the resident.
Usually, this expense will be taken out of the resident’s security deposit as it exceeds “normal wear and tear”.
Bonus: When in Doubt, Ask Your Property Manager
Whenever there is a question about what can be done or how something should be handled during the holidays, it is best to reach out to your property manager before doing anything.
A proactive Washington, DC property management company must clearly communicate holiday recycling guidelines and pickup schedules to avoid confusion during the holiday season.
This is why savvy real estate investors partner with property managers, as they ensure tenants understand their responsibilities while other important aspects are handled. The overall goal is to ensure the property remains profitable while encouraging a positive tenant-landlord relationship.
Conclusion
You are doing more than taking out the trash when you take notice of how much garbage you create over the holidays. Your actions will benefit your finances by protecting your security deposit, your community by keeping it clean, and our environment by helping make Washington, D.C., a cleaner city.
A few simple steps in getting rid of unwanted items can save you a lot of hassle down the road. If there is confusion on what you are allowed to dispose of; your property manager will be able to help guide you to have an enjoyable and responsible holiday season.