Dumpster gone, results after 1 month

[Sequoia]

It's been over a month since I removed the dumpster. I removed it after become fed up with an out-of-control excess trash problem.

Trash:
- Except for two instances, I have received no trash at all, except an occasional coffee cup on the ground or something similar. This was pleasantly surprising.
- The two instances were both the same person. That person arrived about midnight, left several bags of household trash near where the dumpster used to be, and then washed their vehicle. That person visited a third time to wash without bringing any trash.

Customers;
- I have had 3 or 4 customers ask if there was anywhere to dispose trash. When I explained no each said OK.
- I have had a couple of local business owners congratulate me for removing the dumpster, as they have the same trash problem I do. And they used to witness the trash scattered about when they washed their vehicle.

My wash is much cleaner now with the dumpster gone. Workload has gone down, since the bear used to scatter trash about.

I don't have any way to compare vacuum revenue "then" versus "now." On surveillance cameras the vacuums seem quite busy, but when I recently collected money there wasn't as full of a coin box as I expected. (I also recently added Cryptopay.) However, my vacuum usage always slows down when temperatures drop.

Now my dilemma is whether to ever bring the back. It was a magnet for trouble, including trash, people, and animals. Now none of that is a problem.

 

[OASIS WASH]

I cant imagine your vac use wouldn't get cut in half...I personally wouldn't go to a wash where I couldn't throw some trash away before vacuuming my truck. I don't ever have a ton of trash like most people but just being able to get rid of the small stuff so I don't have to vacuum around it.

On a side note, I'd love to get rid of the vacs and trash cans all together if I could! Its the worst part of the job!!

Glad everything has seemed to work out for you!

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I can understand your struggles .... but man, I'd be hard pressed to pull the trash cans. I'm kind of on the same page as OASIS - I would think that trash receptacles for large debris, too large to get sucked up through the vacuum, would be somewhat expected in a car wash that offers vacuums to clean the interiors.

 

[sparkey]

I have just completed a little over a year with no trash cans. Haven't noticed any decline in vacuum usage at all. I get a handful of trash on my vacuum bay maybe once a month but other than that I get no trash at all. I thing it has actually helped my selfserve bays because now I don't have non customers blocking access to my bays just dumping trash.

 

[MEP001]

I really want to do this. Last night I was dumping trash, came back by one vac island and a guy had already filled a can I had just emptied. I picked it up to empty it again, and he dropped two more bags of trash in it right in front of me. One was full of shoes - why would anyone have a trash bag full of shoes in their car? I told him no more trash tonight, he couldn't understand why. I wanted to wait around to make sure he didn't leave any more but I had to meet someone. Next morning the can was full of his garbage (Stuff I saw still in his minivan), the area all around the island was covered in trash, and what looked like a perfectly good box fan he had the night before was deliberately smashed. It's the most blatantly disrespectful thing I've seen in a while, and every one like that pushes me closer to getting rid of all trash cans or boxing them in so they can't leave bags and fining every one of them $500 for illegal dumping when they do.

 

[washnshine]

I understand what those are saying who said people want a place to dump what they cannot vacuum, but I am sure some of you have seen how terrible neglected some car interiors are. So much so that I am sure some people would be perfectly fine with leaving the big stuff and view vacuuming the crumbs, dirt etc. as enough of an improvement, relative to what they came in with. Glad it is working for those of you who have tried it.

 

[Waxman]

But if I get rid of my trash barrels, how will I keep my upper body from atrophy-ing???

Seriously; trash can hauling is a great work out. You guys are missing out!

 

[Sequoia]

Regarding revenue, my vacuums have always performed poorly due to their location in the back. Last I checked they were only 11% of revenue. So I'm not starting with a big revenue source. And I don't know that it has declined at all.

The trash pickup, which I had to increase to 3x per week, was ~$250 per month. Call it 1,000 quarters per month. Which I am no longer paying for. My wash is much cleaner now; something all customers can appreciate. Before, after household trash got dumped and the bear came in and scattered it, the place was a horrible mess. Frequently. Which caused a big cleanup job several times each week. Plus there is the emotional aspect of having to deal with oversize trash crap and feeling like you are being taken advantage of. If it was just these factors on their own, I would never bring the dumpster back. No-brainer.

Regarding vac customers, yes I agree it would be preferred to have a receptacle for small trash. But as I learned, all it takes is one customer to set bagged trash on the ground, and that pile quickly grows. I fear the receptacle for "small trash" will be a magnet for bagged trash. I don't know, as I have never had one. I did observe that one customer brought bags of trash and left them near the vacuum, and within hours those bags were attracting other bags of trash.

And if I have a receptacle for small trash, I need to empty it into something like a dumpster. Once the dumpster is on the property I fear the trash free-for-all will resume. Ideally, I could have a small trash receptacle and a dumpster hidden out of sight next door. But my property characteristics won't allow that.

I could have locked my dumpster. But I felt I needed to force a change in certain people's habits. With no dumpster, they must throw their trash on the ground. From a mental perspective, I believe that is a higher threshold than sitting bags of trash to the side of a locked dumpster. It has mostly worked out-- I KNOW a lot of trash that used to come to me has gone elsewhere. I hope those trash dumpers lock in new habits taking it somewhere else.

Probably after Jan 1 I will look at bringing in a small trash receptacle. Until then, I am staying with no dumpster.

 

[Sequoia]

But if I get rid of my trash barrels, how will I keep my upper body from atrophy-ing???

Seriously; trash can hauling is a great work out. You guys are missing out!

One of my biggest fears with trash is picking up a hefty bag and getting stuck with a needle that pokes out of it.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Seriously; trash can hauling is a great work out. You guys are missing out!

I'll chance it...

 

[99Roadking]

I cant imagine your vac use wouldn't get cut in half...I personally wouldn't go to a wash where I couldn't throw some trash away before vacuuming my truck. I don't ever have a ton of trash like most people but just being able to get rid of the small stuff so I don't have to vacuum around it.

On a side note, I'd love to get rid of the vacs and trash cans all together if I could! Its the worst part of the job!!

Glad everything has seemed to work out for you!

That would be fine and dandy but the free loaders that stop by every two weeks and unload their car and never wash or vacuum will still leave their trash on your island in a plastic Walmart or Dollar General bag. I have finally caught a few of them and explained that I have to pay for them to come by and fill up a 30 gallon container out of their car and they never use a service or make a purchase from vending. I asked one lady who is a habitual dumper where she bought her gas and why not leave all the trash there while purchasing gas. With a confused look on her face she said "because I dont have enough time to empty everything out of my car while pumping gas". I took her tag number and told her she was welcome back anytime if she was using our services but if she came back for anything other than that she would be trespassing and I would have her arrested. So far she hasn't been back at all.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

A couple months ago I caught a guy backed up to my dumpster and preparing to unload. The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm the guy that pays for that.
Him: What, you saying I can't put this in there?
Me: That's right.
Him: Well you don't have a sign.
Me: I'm guessing your next door neighbor doesn't have a sign. Why didn't you dump it there?
Him: I use this car wash all the time, but I'll never be back.
Me: Bye.

I'm guessing he used the wash on his Bentley at home, because the truck he was in hadn't seen a wash in a while.

 

[Sequoia]

Him: What, you saying I can't put this in there?
Him: I use this car wash all the time, but I'll never be back.

Me: Bye.

That is so typical.

Any past trash dumper I caught in the act always gave a Hollywood level performance. Surprise. Indignation. Then a threat to take their business elsewhere and never return.

I never had to rehearse: "Good bye!"

 

[MEP001]

I had a guy tell me he spent $1000 a month washing his fleet vehicles and would never be back. I said "Really? Because I'm sure if you spent two hours a day here washing cars I would have seen you here before."

Backed up to the dumpster: "But I'm going to wash it!"
Me: "No, you're not."

"Can't I just throw away my Christmas tree this one time?"
"Sure, for $300, because that's what an extra pickup costs."

 

[Randy]

Duane there is absolutely NO WAY! I’d even consider bringing back my dumpster once it was gone. I can almost guarantee you that once you bring it back you’ll have the same problem that you had before.

 

[Sequoia]

Duane there is absolutely NO WAY! I’d even consider bringing back my dumpster once it was gone. I can almost guarantee you that once you bring it back you’ll have the same problem that you had before.

It will be interesting to see what happens over Christmas and New Year's. My community has many cabin rentals which are used for the holidays. In past years my dumpster has been overflowing (times three!) after these holidays. I might need to have some on-site presence to discourage those in the bad annual "Christmas habit."

I agree it will be so difficult to contemplate bringing all of that trash, mess, and headache back now that it is gone. I'm still mulling over the options and I think my timing of removing it just before winter weather was lucky/and or good.