Solving The Multi-Family Dwelling Recycling Problem

We Can Overcome MFD Recycling Setbacks

Guest Post by Shane Shirley, CMO, SBS Brands

Recycling provides an effective solution for managing the waste stream. In order to gain the benefits of recycling, it falls to consumers to properly recycle. This sounds easy enough, but for people living in apartments and other types of multi-family dwellings, recycling isn’t that easy. I recently wrote a blog post for SBS’ daughter brand, Factory Direct Promos, about Overcoming Multi-Family Dwelling Recycling Challenges. Let’s learn more about the setbacks that prevent recycling and the simple solution to get more tenants recycling.

Importance of Recycling

The simple act of recycling conserves the use of virgin materials, particularly nonrenewable resources, while also keeping resources that are still useful out of landfills. When items like metal cans, glass bottles, plastic jugs, and cardboard boxes are not recycled, they are lost to the manufacturing industry. This means new materials need to be used to create these everyday items.

When trash is not recycled, it typically ends up in landfills or as litter. This is a particularly troubling problem for items that are not biodegradable, like plastic. As litter, this type of trash is an eyesore that will not go away until it is cleaned up. In landfills, non-biodegradable trash just sits and takes up space causing the landfill to grow larger until it eventually outgrows the space.

Recycling prevents these problems by keeping existing materials out of landfills and putting them back to work fulfilling useful purposes, all while conserving resources.

Lack of a System for MFD Recycling

Recycling in apartment-type housing is often compared to recycling in single-family homes just because those are the primary living arrangements available. Single-family home recycling programs feature a bin homeowners can fill with recyclables and leave at their curb for pickup on designated days. This system works very well under those circumstances, but it just does not work in apartments.

In most instances, there is no easy way for tenants to round up items for recycling. Bins are large and take up space that many apartment dwellers just do not have. Without a viable system, many tenants simply do not recycle.

Larger Implications

In 2008, the financial crisis changed the way many Americans live and prevented or delayed many from purchasing homes. This meant more people were renting and fewer people were living in single-family homes. In turn, this means the system that works so well for recycling in single-family homes still works, but there are fewer recyclables to capture. While more people in apartments means there are more recyclables not being collected.

Easy Solution

Factory Direct Promos has come up with an inventive and simple solution that makes it easy for people living in apartments and other types of multi-family dwellings to recycle. This solution addresses the needs unique to people living in apartments. By removing these barriers more people recycle.

Learn More

If you haven’t already, check out my blog post for our daughter brand, Factory Direct Promos, to learn more about the challenges of recycling in multi-family dwellings. You can also read the multi-family dwelling recycling white paper that breaks the issue down in greater detail and explains how the problem came to be and how their solution works so effortlessly.