The modern movement to “save the planet” from increasing temperatures is not a new phenomenon. Groups have taken an interest in the appearance and the well-being of our natural environment for most of human history.

In the modern version of this concern for the source of all life, Earth Day each year involves millions of volunteers planting trees and cleaning streams and roadways throughout the United States.

The first Earth Day was in 1970, even before we had an Environmental Protection Agency. That year, one US Senator was insistent that we needed to take unified steps to improve our environment. Senator Gaylord Nelson invented this day and soon it became a national day of action.

And it also helped lead to the creation of the EPA as we know it today. Along the way it led to cleaner streams, fewer rivers on fire (we’re looking at you, Cleveland), and cleaner air for everyone.

What you can do this Earth Day

As of the time this article is being written, the next Earth Day is Saturday, April 22nd, 2023. That gives you plenty of time to join a group, look for events, or even to plan an event to beautify your own corner of the world. Here are some options:

Clean a creek in your community – working with the local parks board and some volunteers, you can clean a creek in your community. First, check with an expert about what is and isn’t trash, and then learn how you can remove items without causing too much damage to the area.

Do a trash clean-up near your home – again working with the local parks board or a company that owns a frequently-used parcel of land, you can clean the area to make it more presentable. This can involve trash and recycling, or even large items that have been dumped in the area .

Plant trees and native plants in an area – or take out invasive species. Again working with local parks and development board; work with a group of volunteers to help restore native plants to your area. Native plants are attractive and hardy, meaning they will live on long after your work is over.

If the area you are cleaning is large, or very dirty, consider renting a dumpster to contain all that you collected. Some agencies will even weigh the full container to let you know exactly how much trash you gathered in pounds – this can be used to encourage your volunteers for future years.

If you are renting a dumpster for your next big project or neighborhood clean-up, you will likely sign an agreement for what you can and can’t put inside. If you are like many people, you will not read that agreement very closely, or at all.

Sure, you will glance at the bottom line to verify that there are no unforeseen charges, or to complain about the taxes added. You’ll likely sign it.

But what did you agree to?

Well, among other things, you agreed that there are certain items that you will NOT put in your dumpster.

While this may vary based on the city, the specific waste site, and the options available to your rental company, we can anticipate some of the items that you should not put in your dumpster.

Our reference is the posted information at the Website of Rumpke Waste and Recycling, southwest Ohio’s largest waste removal company.

This specific list is the items you *can* throw out, but only if you have specific permission.

What you can throw out only with permission

These are the common items you can secure permission to throw away. Typical homeowners might encounter these on a regular basis while doing the work that requires renting a dumpster:

• Rags, absorbent materials, sponges, and brushes impacted with pain / stain remover / cleaners, or other chemicals
• Batteries or all types and kinds
• Electronics including computers, monitors, and televisions
• Obsolete / outdated chemicals / cleaners / products
• Appliances with refrigerant removed

Here are less common, or industrial items that can be thrown away, again with permission. These are items more likely to be found in an industrial or commercial setting or project:

• Manufacturing or manufacturing process waste including but not limited to sledge; sand; shot blast, dust filters, and various paint wastes
• Materials used in cleaning up a spill, specifically of items on this list
• Solidified liquids
• Empty containers including drums, tanks, 5-gallon pails, aerosol cans
• PCB waste lower than 50 ppm
• Asbestos

Waste management companies have a responsibility to the community they serve and the people who live in the area. Be sure to read the rules to make sure your items get disposed of correctly when you are using your dumpster.

Your project has been running smoothly. The trash has been taken out, the remodel or tear-down has proceeded without injuries or delays. All in all, it’s been a great project.

But what’s that? Someone is shouting from the street. There is smoke coming from your dumpster.

What could it be? And more importantly, what should you do next?

Call 9-1-1

You are an independent person. You take pride in doing things on your own, and solving problems. Well, the next step might run contrary to your experience.

You should first call 9-1-1. Get professional help and overwhelming force on your side as quickly as possible.

When you call, be sure to let the call taker know that exactly is inside the dumpster. Is it wood lathing? Is it painted panelboard? Is it waste from waterproofing that includes flammable chemicals? And are you sure it is only what you put inside, or did an unwelcome visitor dump something more inside one night when no one was looking?

Also, be sure to let them know if a fire in the dumpster could potentially threaten a structure nearby. Is the dumpster against a garage? It is in an easement between two houses?

All of this uncertainty is a reason to call for professional help. You don’t know whether the smoke is a smoldering mattress or if it is about to turn into a large chemical fire with thick dark smoke visible a mile away threatening property and lives.

Secure the scene

Next, use your resources to make sure that no one or nothing gets too close to the smoking dumpster. This could be as easy as standing by to encourage dog-walkers to cross the street, or it could involve moving a car or truck a little further away.

Be safe though. Fire response times in many places are pretty quick, so there is no need to risk life and limb to make a site a little more safe.

Think about the possible and probable outcomes, and take a few simple, safe steps to make sure that your plume of smoke doesn’t become something bigger, more dangerous, or more expensive. Keep your project on schedule and your clients, staff, or family safe.

One of the frustrations in doing a large construction or demolition project is dealing with scrappers. Scrappers are often industrious and sometimes unscrupulous individuals  who seek to make a profit by selling items from your work space.

 

At their best, scrappers can take away your unwanted metal and free up space in your dumpster. This can save you time and energy and actually be a benefit to your process.

 

At their worst, scrappers are thieves who take away not just unwanted metal but also copper and valuable metals. They can destroy your work site, cost you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of lost labor.

 

The second kind of scrapper, the thieves, should be dealt with by law enforcement.  However, the first kind of scrapper can become a valuable partner in your project.

 

Here are some suggestions for making this partnership work.

 

Survey the neighbors

 

When you talk to the neighbors around a project you may find that some of them already know something about The Scrappers in your neighborhood. They might not know their names and addresses but they can tell you what night of the week they come around and what they drive.

 

With this information you can make plans to have an encounter, talk about your upcoming project, and strategize a plan that helps both of you out.

 

 

Implement a plan

Armed with this information, you can place your valuable scrap metal on the side of your Big Daddy Dumpster  instead of inside of it. This saves the energy of lifting it up and throwing it inside. It also saves space.

 

If you can save one or two pickups and dropoffs  over the course of a project, you’re talking about real savings.

 

Savings and safety

But perhaps just as important as saving money is protecting people. The most industrious scrappers can also put themselves and you at risk. When they enter your dumpster, they also enter your liability.

 

Most dumpster diving injuries are minor: cuts, scrapes, and bruises that will heal naturally and  not result in any issues moving forward. However, on occasion a scrapper can sustain a serious injury. If your dumpster was unsecured, this could result in a lawsuit for what in legal terms is called an attractive nuisance. An argument can be made that you could rightly anticipate the existence of scrappers, and by failing to take steps to make the space safe, you share blame in the accident.

 

So, rather than put up a fence, or pay a guard, just make an agreement and save everyone time, money, and trouble.

One of the small but notable hazards of reclaiming a space is choosing the right chemicals to clean it. Some cleaning products are harsh or abrasive and can do damage to the surface you’re trying to clean.  Others simply don’t do the job well.

 

Still others are fine for cleaning purposes but when you  combine them with different cleaners or throw them out they can pose a hazard.

 

A decade ago environmentally friendly cleaning products were rare. And the ones you could find after scouring store shelves and reading labels often didn’t do the job well. Luckily that has changed.

 

Use these environmentally friendly cleaning products around your house and you can feel safe using them and throwing them in the town dump.

 

Cleaning glass surfaces

For cleaning glass, there are choices that are slightly acidic, or slightly base, or Ph neutral. The emphasis on “slight” helps you to be sure they won’t irritate your eyes or lungs as you use them.

 

Some popular brands of window cleaners include Biokleen, Bean and Lily, and Method. They all depend less on chemical compounds and more on natural, safe ingredients.

 

Of course, a simple mix of vinegar and water can work to get most windows clean.

 

Just remember that the trick in window cleaning is getting the liquid off the surface before it dries and leaves the sediment right back where it started.

 

 

Cleaning floors

According to Safe Household Cleaners, there are many great choices for safely cleaning your floors.  And, as with the windows, the champion main ingredient is vinegar.

 

Brands that won accolades from Safe Household Cleaners’ judges include Aunt Fannie’s Vinegar Floor Wash, Babyganics Fragrance-Free Floor Cleaner, and ECOs Floor Cleaner.

 

 

Cleaning kitchens and bathrooms

Of course, the clean-up gets tougher in these two rooms, where preparing bodies and preparing meals each make unique messes that require unique solutions.

 

Better Life Tile and Tub Cleaner seems like a scientific miracle product, as it can safely dissolve that ring around your tub. Its special blend of oil and water works to dissolve soap and skin and other residue. Bentley Organic Shower Cleaner or Biopuro Bathroom Cleaner will also do the rough work with aggravating your sinuses.

 

 

 

For every home task, your choices include a range of acidic to base, but each of these products will get the job done, and you can be confident that they will be safe for your family.

 

 

 

As you prepare for your next big project, whether it is construction or demolition, you need to think about your budget.

 

There are many parts of the budget to consider:

• Tools (things you can use over and over again)
• Supplies (things you use once then throw away or recycle)
• Wages (to pay those who are helping with the work)
• Resources (those things you need to rent or borrow)

 

Among the resources, one important consideration is the price of the dumpster. Dumpster cost is a fixed cost that you should be able to sort out with a single call to Big Daddy Dumpster or another dumpster supplier.

 

To determine dumpster cost you only need to solve a couple of variables or answer a couple of questions.

 

How big a dumpster do you need?

The first variable that you need to consider is the size of your dumpster. How much waste will you be generating? And how often will you want the dumpster dumped and returned?

 

For some projects, a small dumpster will be adequate to take care of the whole thing. Other projects might require a large dumpster and multiple replacements.

 

Refer to this size chart and examine it against the materials you’ll be hauling away from your site. Also, remember that feeling a dumpster is not a precise science. There will always be empty spaces of air and never a perfectly tight fit of garbage in a dumpster.

 

 

How long do you need the dumpster?

Next, consider the length of your project.  will this be a 1 day tear down with a small army of people telling the dumpster? Or would this be a multi-week building project with occasional, unscheduled calls to empty the dumpster based on the needs of the crew in a given day or week?

 

Once you have figured out the size of your dumpster and the duration of your rental, call  Big Daddy dumpsters  to schedule your project. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff can help make the ordering and scheduling process easy, and we can help with planning too!

 

If you’ve never ordered a dumpster before, call us even before you start planning. We can help give you advice that will make the process easy and affordable, and make your project run more smoothly, on time, and perhaps even under budget!

 

When you bought that second property, your first thought was that you had accomplished a small slice of the American Dream. You had reached a milestone that is an important measure for many people about how strong their economic past has been, and hopes for a stronger and more prosperous economic future.

You might or might not have thought it at the time, but you were on your way to becoming a landlord. After all, the second location was not going to pay for itself, and that was never the plan.

You’ve learned a lot along the way, and you spend your spare time looking for ways to be more profitable and to make money as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Owning a property is tough

You understood that owning a property was going to be tough.  But maybe you did not understand how tough it was going to be.

Every demand made by a renter became a decision for you or, more likely, a task for you. It is not profitable to farm everything out to a for-hire handyman.

And it may have been impossible to anticipate the number of requests and demands made by your renters.  Drippy faucets, tall grass, squeaky doors, loud neighbors …  all of these things suddenly became your problem.

You want to make it easier

So obviously it is your plan to make each of these decisions a little bit easier. Over time you have built relationships with different providers, other owners, and even your renters to get certain tasks done.

You know that every time you build a trusted relationship or partnership, your job gets easier in the future. Better yet, you know that the quality of the work improves over time as you can better say what you want to have happen, and your partners know exactly what you expect.

Doing business with a dedicated partner makes it easy

When you build a relationship with a lawn service, a handyman, a dumpster company, painters or cleaners, your job gets easier.

Soon you have a stable group of people who can meet your expectations with very little oversight or direction. Tasks that used to take a lot of time can now be handled with a phone call or a text.

Developing a partnership with a company like Big Daddy Dumpsters means that you don’t have to work hard every time you need to handle a move-out or remodel. Just call, and we will set up a recurring order at the time and place that meets your needs.

Photo by Erickson Balderama: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-an-apartment-building-facade-with-balconies-6703650/