Best Commercial Trash Cans & Recycling Tools

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Wheel carts, office bins and recycling tools for businesses

How do you implement a successful recycling program for your business? You can achieve this by using the right indoor and outdoor recycling tools and recycling labels. This makes separating trash and recyclables easy for you, your colleagues and visitors. Here you can find recommended recycling bins and tools for collecting mixed recycling, compost, and trash or landfill.

Quality recycling tools with standardized labels saves recyclables from landfills.

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Commercial recycling stations for your office

Are you looking for elegant office trash cans for creating recycling stations in your office building?

We’ve made a selection of the best trash can collections for office use. A matching set of professional bins can be found for every interior style and design.

Make recycling visible and convenient with centralized recycling stations.

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MIXED & PAPER RECYCLING – Bins & Tools

• Waste materials: Paper, cardboard, cans, glass, tin and plastics jugs or bottles.
• Color code: Blue
• Recommended tools:
  • Confidential paper shredder
  • Shred bins (for secure storage)

Wheel carts for recyclables

Tools and bins for recyclables

Labels for mixed and paper recycling

Source: Recycle Across America

COMPOST – Bins & Tools

• Waste materials: Food and food-related paper discards for composting.
• Color code: Green

Wheel carts for compostables

Tools and bins for composting

Labels for compost & compostables

Source: Recycle Across America

LANDFILL – Bins & Tools

• Waste materials: Non-recyclable materials that will end up on landfill.
• Color code: Grey

Wheel carts for trash

Tools and bins for trash

Labels for landfill & trash

Source: Recycle Across America

Use labels to minimize confusion and contamination

Not everybody knows what kind of waste goes in a blue, green or grey container. So a color coded bin alone isn’t enough because contamination in recycling bins is a large issue. This contamination exists because of confusion at the bin, people aren’t sure in which bin they can dispose their waste. To minimize contamination this issue it is important to label your recycling bins and trash cans with understandable text, signs and images. Read more about standardized recycling labels at Let’s Recycle Right.

Recycle Across America (RAA) offers standardized labels for your recycling tools. These labels make it very clear (visually and in text) which waste stream belong to which container so people can recycle properly. This minimizes confusion at the bin and ensures that waste materials end up in the correct waste stream. The labels are proven to increase recycling with 50-100%. The result is less trash and more recycling, so step up on the waste hierarchy.

Get waste in the appropriate bin instead of the most convenient bin.

Placement of the bins: Side-by-side

To minimize the chance of contamination it is recommended to place so called ‘side-by-side bin stations’ indoors and outdoors. These stations contain two or more recycling bins and one trash can and are placed side-by-side in a row. The philosphy behind the system is that every trash can should have a recycling bin right next to it. Hereby the user can select the appropriate bin for their waste disposal. When you implement this system together with the right labels the result will be less confusion and less contamination in your recycling bins.

Reduce contamination and increase recycling.

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Tips for buying wheeled trash cans

For commercial, industrial and business use it is recommended to buy heavy-duty wheeled trash cans with the right size and capacity. A wheeled waste container can be used for trash and for recycling. It is mostly used outdoors, but can also be placed indoors. The bin contains two or more wheels and comes with a lid to close off the container properly. Popular 2-wheel trash and recycling cart brands on Amazon.com are Rubbermaid, Toter and Suncast.

Right size and capacity

Most commercial trash cans with wheels come in different capacities and size options. We recommend getting a 96 gallon (360 liters) wheeled trash can. This is the largest size for a two-wheeled trash can. The capacity is large enough to hold 6 standard bags. The downside of a large wheeled recycling bin is that it is harder to handle when full and the larger footprint. So when there is not much floor space in your office, you can also opt for a medium-sized trash can with a capacity of around 64 gallons. This container size is large enough to hold around 4 standard bags. We don’t recommend a small 32-gallon recycling cart for commercial use due to the low capacity.

Durability of the wheel cart

The construction of a wheeled trash can or recycling bin needs to be rugged, durable and made of strong commercial-grade materials. That is if you want your container to last for a long time.

Get a wheeled trash can:

• with a strong and ergonomic handle.
• that can handly heavy loads and still moves smooth and easily.
• that is easy to tilt and roll.
• with a strong hinge and lid construction, because this part can break easily when made of flimsy plastic.
• that is light enough for easy maneuverability but is stable enough for strong winds.
• that withstand all kind of weather conditions like strong winds, rain, snow and the radiation of the sun.
• that survives the grab and flip in the trash trucks on pickup day.
• with strong wheels that can roll on most surfaces.
• that can be picked up by trash trucks.

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Step up for more recycling and waste reduction

Learn more about the recycling programs of the following waste management companies:

North America:

• Waste Management – Think Green
• Rubicon Global – DIVERT

United Kingdom:

• Veolia – Commercial Recycling
• The Recycling Association – Members

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Step Up: Recycle, Reuse & Reduce

The three arrows of the recycling symbol represent the three main stages of the recycling process: recycling, reusing and reducing. Together the arrows form a closed loop. Step up and implement eco-friendly replacements in your daily life.

Join the movement! Step Up the waste hierarchy together to a goal of Zero Waste.