There are a lot of things that come with the warm summer months. Some things we welcome with open arms, like tanned skin, neighborhood pools, longer days and no school. Others come even when we wish they wouldn’t, like car interiors that burn your skin, having to still go to work when it’s beautiful outside and the wafting smell of rotting garbage around every restaurant corner, beach entrance and your garage (yikes!). The following is a brief description of what those smells actually mean. This is not meant to scare you, but to nudge you with a little incentive to do something about it. Obviously, we believe that getting those garbage bins cleaned regularly and professionally should be a priority, hopefully you’ll agree after we remind you of what that stink really means.
We all do it – hold our breath as we open the garbage bin lid, toss the bag into the abyss and run away gasping for fresh air as we release the two-fingered grip with a boom. It’s gross. There’s no two ways about it, garbage stinks. Recycling stinks. The men and women that ride in garbage collection trucks must be of a different species to be able to handle the stench for the entire day. Even the most scrupulous and tidy of trash makers have stinky garbage bins. Some people try to clean their bins themselves, and we can all understand why – it needs to be done! Up until a few years ago, the closest thing to a professional you could hire to clean your garbage bin was the kid down the street with his dad’s pressure washer. Now that the industry is growing, it’s time to take a look at what that stink really means so you can make an informed decision about whether or not you need to add this service to your household’s monthly upkeep.
Reason for Stink #1 – ROTTING FOOD
All food has an expiration date (thanks to nature and the FDA), and when it hits that moment, 99% of what’s left gets thrown away. Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of food that enters your trash, but not everything can go into a household composter. The food is typically stinky when it goes into the trash, but most of the decay happens once it’s enclosed in the bag and put outside in the heat. Produce begins to decompose the moment it is picked due to the attacks of enzymes, oxidation and microorganisms. Things like yeast, mold, bacteria, moisture, temperature, and chemical reaction all have a major effect on decomposing food. When bacteria is responsible for decomposing food, it’s not so much the bacteria itself that is harmful to humans, but the acid and other waste products that are emitted that can cause serious infections and disease. A bag of food in an enclosed environment (your trash bin outside in the sun) is certainly doing a lot of decomposing and that smell you avoid every time you lift the lid is carrying with it some serious health risks!
Reason for Stink #2 – THE LIFE OF INSECTS
Flies, bees, ants, beetles, roaches, mosquitos, spiders…. Do I need to continue? There’s a certain population that loves bugs, but I guarantee they don’t hang around garbage bins to be entertained by them. Bugs thrive off of trash, it’s no secret. They also live to pro-create and are constantly looking for places to lay their eggs that give their offspring the best chances of survival – aka, plenty of food once born. A stinky, smelly garbage bin is like an all-you-can-eat-buffet for most bug species, why would they ever leave? Those eggs, once laid, become larve and eventually maggots – which smell. The last thing you want is your trash bins to become a maternity ward for bugs. Removing them as they show up is certainly one way, but they will come back as long as you keep providing the food for them to eat… which is inevitable if you actually use your garbage bin.
Reason for Stink #3 – DISEASE
It doesn’t take much to expose yourself to infectious or bacterial diseases like the common cold, the flu, e.coli or salmonella. You probably never thought of your garbage bin as a source for such sicknesses, either. Simple swabs of garbage have shown all of these diseases and worse – even diseases thought to be mostly managed and extinguished, like the plague bacterium, are known to be spread via garbage and waste management. We all do so much to keep germs to a minimum in our life, by washing our hands regularly and using anti-bacterial gels and soaps. Keeping a sanitary garbage/recycling area should be a natural component to this equation.
Reason for Stink #4 – PESTS
Mostly for their remnants and deposits, but ultimately most wild creatures have a particular stink to them. If you’ve got stinky garbage sitting on the curb or by your house, or even worse, in your garage, you’re likely to be attracting some serious attention from the neighborhood raccoon/opossum/rats/bear/mice/dogs/cats/birds. Not only do they make a mess of your neatly bagged garbage, but they usually bring their friends and they always leave noticeable traces of being there – in the form of feces – which stinks! Eliminate the stink and you’ll eliminate the draw for these pests, even when there is a fresh bag of garbage tucked neatly inside.
So there you have it, four good reasons to keep your garbage and recycle bins free from the stink. We know that most likely, you didn’t need these reasons to do something about it – the annoyance alone is usually enough. Ultimately, all anyone wants to do about their garbage is to ELIMINATE the STINK. And that’s exactly what Bins Be Clean does for you. Our monthly service keeps your bins stink free, which means they are also free from pests, bacteria, bugs and rotting food. We use high pressure and hot water instead of harmful chemicals and valuable weekend time. We dispose of the dirty water according to county and EPA guidelines instead of letting it run down your driveway and into the storm drains and our rivers and streams. We come monthly, so you never have to worry about the stink ever again. You can sign up HERE. You’re welcome.
