If you own or manage a small shopping center like a strip mall, you know how much garbage and recycling can be generated just through the increased receiving of goods for each shop. That can lead to more problems than just overflowing bins. If you have the room for all that extra trash, you may have the room for a rented compactor or two, one for trash and one for recycling. Compactors are available in smaller sizes, so you can help your tenants keep the center looking clean without affecting business.

Problems Stemming From Too Much Material

If the stores in the center generate too much trash and recycling -- particularly cardboard -- during the holiday buying season, obviously the items will overflow out of the provided bins. But those piles of materials have three side effects that can make the center undesirable to be in.

• One is just the increased amount of trash in view; it makes the center look uncared for. Plus, unless the waste pickup services you use also take items piled on the ground, you're left with more and more waste that just sits there. Even if you put that trash and recycling into the bins after the bins are emptied, more materials will keep piling up.
• The second is that the materials can scatter on a windy day, littering the parking lot and nearby blocks. That can lead to complaints and possible fines.
• The third problem is likely the most serious because it's a health hazard. All that paper, cardboard, food waste, and other materials become nice little hiding places for pests like rats. And if the pests set up their homes in the trash, or even try to set up their homes, that can lead to bites and scratches for anyone trying to move the trash and recycling from the ground to the bins.

If the materials are continually disturbed, it will be harder for the pests to live in them, of course, but once the pests are present, they may try to go into the stores themselves for shelter. So you want to avoid attracting the pests in the first place.

Indoor and Outdoor Models Available

Trash and recycling compactors don't have to be huge machines that take up a couple of valuable parking spots. You can get the compactors in smaller sizes, as well as indoor models that you can rent and distribute to each store or place in common areas. These can substantially reduce the amount of space that the trash and recycling materials take up. That in turn makes it easier to place all of the material in the bins waiting for pickup.

Increasing Pickup Times Isn't Always an Option

Compactors beat arranging for additional pickup times, because there's no guarantee the waste services you use will be able to make extra pickups. Giving businesses and customers the ability to compact the trash and recycling they produce eliminates the need for extra trips by waste and recycling trucks, reducing the need to use fuel and reducing the noise that goes along with having garbage trucks rumbling through the shopping center.

If you want to find out more about the sizes of compactors available, talk to a compactor rental company like C-TEC Compactors & Balers. There really is a solution for everyone, and you and your tenants can look forward to a cleaner, easier-to-manage holiday season.