Choosing Industrial Garbage Containers for Facility Waste Handling

Take a look at your facility’s waste management plan. It might list bin collection areas, transfer routes, waste stream composition, material handling equipment, and more. But do you have clear data on how many industrial garbage containers you need, as well as the sizes, features, and designs of these bins?

If not, it’s time to reevaluate. Industrial garbage containers range from small paper baskets to full-on mobile dumpsters, and choosing the right bin for the job can improve waste handling efficiency significantly — and even prevent injuries. But with all the bins on the market, it can be tough to decide which ones should go where. Here are three major types of industrial garbage containers, along with some tips on where to place them within your waste management system, from the office to the production floor and beyond.

3 Types of Industrial Garbage Containers (and Where to Use Them in Your Facility)

1. Stationary Waste Bins

Most of the trash cans you encounter outside the workplace are stationary; that is, they’re designed to sit in one place, and rather than dump them, you pull out a liner. At an industrial facility, liners are typically only helpful in offices and other light waste-generating areas. If you’re tossing out heavy solid trash (like production waste), you’ll probably need something big — and you won’t bother with liners.

In many industrial facilities, round, plastic, 44-gallon Brute bins, or similar designs from other brands, are ubiquitous. These bins are famously durable, but they typically lack wheels (dollies and wheeled models are available, but that’s not what we’re discussing here). That means employees must either carry them to collection points or empty them into bigger mobile bins. Unassisted, both of these tasks carry ergonomic risks.

We’d recommend stationary waste bins be used only in light-waste areas. Where you dispose of heavier materials, wheels become extremely useful.

2. Roll-Out Carts

These are large plastic bins with two casters that allow users to tilt and roll them into place, providing quick, ergonomic mobility lacking in stationary bins. You might recognize Roll-Out Carts from municipal waste programs — but the combination of durability and mobility also makes them ideal for handling solid industrial waste.

Roll-Out Carts are available in a variety of colors, so you can easily separate waste into recycling, reuse, and landfill streams. On production lines, employees can roll them to work stations for quick use, then roll them back to a centralized location for collection. The Cascade Icon Series Roll-Out Carts from Solus Group are UV-protected against sun damage, and include RFID tags as a standard feature, so they’re ready for electronic tracking and IoT waste-handling systems.

Explore Cascade Icon Series Roll-Out Carts from Solus Group.

3. Small Plastic Dumpsters

What separates a dumpster from an industrial garbage container? Typically, dumpsters are placed outside, near loading docks or in alleys. They’re the final point of collection for waste before the hauler comes to pick it up.

But the design of a dumpster — long, with high-capacities — makes an ideal mid-point collection device, provided it’s just a bit smaller, and made of plastic rather than metal. Four casters are essential for using small plastic dumpsters as industrial garbage containers.

Use this type of Mobile Garbage Bin to collect waste from smaller collection sites. Another option is to place them near waste-generating areas, reducing the number of trips you’ll have to take to empty them.

Explore Mobile Garbage Bins from Solus Group

With high-capacity waste containers like Mobile Garbage Bins, manual emptying isn’t safe. In fact, it’s always safer to use material handling equipment like a Bin Dumper to lift and tip industrial garbage containers into final collection receptacles.

Choose the Multi-Tip or DumpMaster Hydraulic Bin Dumper to safely and efficiently empty Roll-Out Carts. For handling Mobile Garbage Bins, choose the MegaDumper. With a combination of rolling industrial garbage containers and ergonomic equipment like Bin Dumpers, your waste management plan will translate into bottom-line improvements, from reduced injury rates to lower waste-handling costs.

Explore Bin Dumpers and Bins from Solus Group

Contact Solus Group at 314-696-0200 for personalized help with choosing industrial garbage containers for your facility.