South King County - Apartment - Condominium - Multi Family - Waste Management Northwest

Step 1: Set your Property up for Recycling Success!

As a multifamily property manager or owner, you hold the key to establishing a successful recycling program! It all starts with ensuring that your property has the necessary services and tools for making recycling easy and convenient for your residents. See below for how to set your property up for recycling success!

Evaluating your current garbage and recycling service level is the most important step in establishing an effective recycling program at your property. Most properties have plenty of garbage capacity and not enough recycling. This often leads to recyclable materials being placed in the garbage. In general, properties should have an equal number of carts and/or containers for garbage and recycling.

If your property does not have space for additional or larger containers, consider increasing the frequency of recycling collection. At a minimum your property should provide 24 gallons of weekly recycling service per unit. Use the WM Multifamily Recycling Service Calculator, below, to easily calculate the right recycling service level for your property.

WM Multifamily Recycling Service Calculator

Unit Count

Contact WM Customer Service if you need to make changes to your collection service or if you need to change container locations. Call 800-592-9995 (M-F 7 am - 7 pm) or submit your request using the Request Onsite Assistance form.

Make sure that garbage and recycling containers are placed in an area that residents can access conveniently and easily, and that recycling and garbage containers are located close together, either side-by-side or in the same enclosure.

Avoid having garbage and recycling containers in separate areas. When garbage and recycling containers are too far apart, residents may throw all of their materials in the closest container. See below for examples of ineffective and effective container placement.

WM Northwest

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Are you worried there isn't enough room for recycling and garbage containers to be located together? Use the Garbage and Recycling Container Options sheet to help determine what container sizes will fit in your enclosure. If you need additional space, consider reducing container size and increasing pick-up frequency or converting unused space.

Clear and visible signs on containers help residents easily identify where materials belong. Check each of your containers to see if they are properly labeled with WM garbage and recycling decals. Decals should be posted on all visible sides of the container. Multilingual container labels and large-format enclosure posters are also available to help all residents recycle right.

Use the Resource Order Form to request new container decals and multilingual labels if they are missing or damaged. Decals, labels, and enclosure posters are provided free of charge.

WM Northwest

Garbage Decal Sample

Recycling Decal Sample

Multilingual Garbage Decal

Multilingual Recycling Decal

Garbage Poster

Recycling Poster

Step 2: Educate and Motivate your Residents!

It is important to provide residents with information about how to recycle at your property. See below for easy and creative ways to engage residents in your property's recycling program.

Provide new residents with recycling guidelines and briefly go over acceptable items. Those resources can be either downloaded or ordered directly from Waste Management.

Let your residents know about ways to recycle moving boxes, packing materials and other items left over after moving in, by providing a Resident Waste Reduction Guide and a county Household Hazardous Waste flyer. Distribute recycling guidelines to residents in their preferred language. Guidelines are available in English, Spanish, Korean, Amharic, Russian, Chinese, Somali, Vietnamese and Hindi.

Schedule a move-in site walk, visit the garbage and recycling area and let your new resident know who to contact with garbage and recycling questions (recyclenw@wm.com). Check in after a few weeks to answer questions about the program and provide positive encouragement.

Recycling Guidelines

Provide all residents with current recycling guidelines, Resident Waste Reduction Guide and county Household Hazardous Waste flyer on an annual basis, and ensure that every unit receives a recycling tote bag.

Order printed copies of recycling guidelines to distribute to residents in English or other languages that are common at your property. Guidelines are available in Spanish, Korean, Amharic, Russian, Chinese, Somali, Vietnamese and Hindi.

Send newsletter announcements and hang posters and educational materials in common areas such as laundry rooms, mail areas and the main lobby or leasing office.

Hang poster-size versions of recycling guidelines at eye level in community or shared spaces, wherever indoor recycling bins or outdoor recycling containers are located. Possible locations include laundry rooms, mail rooms, community meeting rooms, and garbage rooms, as well as outdoor enclosures near recycling containers. If possible, laminate posters for durability before hanging.

Tote Bags
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A reusable recycling tote bag makes it easy for residents to store recyclable items in their residence and carry them to the property's recycling container.

You can request a supply of recycling tote bags at no cost on a first come, first served basis. Supplies are limited, so request bags today!

You can distribute recycling tote bags, recycling guidelines, and other recycling resources in a variety of ways:

DOOR-TO-DOOR OUTREACH

Engage residents in conversations about recycling and tell them who they can contact with questions.

BAG LEFT ON DOORS

Leave a tote bag on the door handle of every unit with the educational materials inside, include Recycling Tote Bag Instructions.

RESIDENT PICKUP

Provide tote bags and educational materials at the property office.

MOVE-IN DELIVERY

Distribute bags to new residents as part of the move-in orientation.

If you are rolling out a new recycling program, be sure to communicate changes at least 2 weeks in advance. For example, you can:

Place recycling posters on bulletin boards or near mailboxes
Distribute letters and/or door-hangers to each apartment
Announce the program through emails or newsletters
Provide door-to-door outreach
Host a resident recycling event

Step 3: Take your Recycling Program to the Next Level!

Congratulations! You have created a successful recycling program at your property. We know it is no small task to keep busy residents informed and motivated to recycle often and recycle right. Here are some tools to keep your recycling program running smoothly throughout the year.

If you are struggling with illegal dumping of electronics, furniture, and other items not allowed in garbage or recycling containers, consider providing residents with convenient collection alternatives such as a resident recycling event. This can reduce illegal dumping, keep reusable or hazardous materials out of the garbage and help reduce collection costs. You can also provide residents with information about "community take back" programs for special items.

Many local companies are willing to collect unwanted household goods, electronics, clothing, and other items for free. Contact a local charity to arrange a special pick-up day at your location, and let residents know in advance about the opportunity to properly dispose of their items.

Set Up a Share Space Is there a space onsite where residents can place reusable items they no longer want? This can be a designated corner in a garbage room, laundry room, clubhouse, or under a covered enclosure. Post signs and rules for how and what residents are allowed to leave in the Share Space.	Organize a Property-wide Garage Sale Can you reserve a portion of the parking lot or another common space for a building-wide garage sale? Select a time and date, recruit participants, and post signs. Contact a local charity to collect reusable materials not sold during the garage sale.
Host a Textile Collection Bin Clothing collection bins provide a free and convenient way for residents to donate reusable clothing. Consider hosting a clothing donation bin serviced and collected by local non-profits: Northwest Center Sight Connection	Connect Residents with E-Cycle Washington Program Partners Through E-Cycle Washington, your residents can recycle televisions, computers, monitors, laptops, e-readers, and portable DVD players for free. Visit ecyclewashington.org or call 800-RECYCLE to find electronic product recycling drop-off locations in your area. Some organizations, such as Interconnection, might be willing to pick up electronics from your property.
Encourage Use of "Take Back" Collection Locations for Other Special Items Increasingly, retailers and manufacturers are providing local opportunities for residents to "take back" items to stores or other drop-off locations. Refer residents to these great programs: Electronics E-Cycle Washington, Best Buy, and Staples CFLs and fluorescent tubes Light Recycle Washington Rechargeable batteries and phones Call 2 Recycle Plastic bags Plastic Film Recycling	Encourage Donation of Reusable Clothes and Housewares Donating reusable books, clothing, housewares and other items to local charities such as Goodwill, Northwest Center, Sight Connection and Salvation Army is an easy way to prevent unnecessary waste, keep reusable items out of the garbage, and create jobs and job training opportunities in your community.

Do you and your residents know what recycling success looks like at your property? For some properties, the year’s goal might be to increase the number of recycling containers on site. For other properties, minimizing illegal dumping may be a top priority. No matter what your property's starting point, there are always ways to improve resident recycling.

Each year, share your property's recycling goals with your residents, including why they should care and how they can help. At the end of the year, communicate and celebrate your successes.

Review your recycling program every year. Increased recycling participation, changes in unit vacancy rates, and new residents can impact the continued success of your program.

If your property only has a few garbage and recycling enclosures, or very low resident turnover, complete the Recycling Program Checklist annually. Larger properties, or properties with more than two enclosures, are encouraged to reassess their recycling program bi-annually to keep up with larger-scale changes happening onsite. If you would like to give residents feedback about specific items you are finding in the recycling containers or an overview of how the property is doing as a whole, use the WM Recycling Program Feedback doorhanger.

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If property management is located on-site, recruit a resident volunteer to assist with the completion of the Recycling Program Checklist and provide recognition for their assistance.

Most residents want to know they are living at a property that cares about recycling and waste reduction. Regularly acknowledging residents for doing a good job recycling will go a long way towards keeping residents engaged in the property's recycling program. On the flip side, if there are frequent challenges with things placed in or next to the garbage or recycling containers, let residents know how they can improve or help keep an eye out for issues.

All WM Recycling All Stars resources can be downloaded for printing or ordered online.