How often do you take your kitchen trash out at home? Do you replace the bag every day, or do you wait until it's full? Don't feel bad if you wait until it's full, your single trash can is unlikely to cause any issues for you.
The important difference between your home and your office is occupancy. More occupants mean more trash cans and a large amount of trash can cause a whole lot of problems if it's not disposed of often enough.
Taking out trash and recycling is one of the cornerstones of an effective office cleaning checklist. It helps protects your trash cans from becoming too messy, prevents parts of your facility from taking on the unpleasant smell of rotting food, and reduces your risk of having to deal with pest infestations.
Replacing Ripped Trash Bags
Ripped can liners do very little to protect your trash can from being soiled. Ripped trash bags allow food and drinks to settle at the bottom of the can. This is a common issue with personal trash cans at employees' work desks. Many businesses opt for a less durable can liner for their small personal trash cans, which can lead to easier tearing and more frequent messes.
Removing Food and Beverages
Replacing trash bags and can liners daily removes all food waste from your facility. It's common for employees to eat food at their desks and dispose of any scraps in their personal trash cans. It's important to remove any can liner with food scraps as leftover food waste causes more issues if left too long. This is a common issue with lunchrooms and other communal eating areas as well. These trash cans are primarily used for food and beverage waste, which is why it's an important step in any lunchroom cleaning checklist to change these trash bags regularly.
Reduce Odors
Food and drinks can begin to create "unique" odors shortly after being discarded. These odors can make your environment uncomfortable for nearby employees and harm their workplace satisfaction. Replacing can liners with food or beverages in them on a daily basis helps to eliminate unpleasant odors that could otherwise overtake your workplace.
Preventing Pest Infestations
Rodents and insects are attracted to food and beverage waste that is left in trash cans for too long. Removing trash can liners containing any food or beverage waste on a daily basis will reduce the risk of attracting unwanted visitors.
The simple answer to this question is that to be safe, you should have your trash bag replaced every day in the workplace. The truth is that you'll probably have your office trash can changed as often as your cleaning happens. The exception to the rule is when there hasn't been any food or beverages disposed of, and the can liner is still intact.
For areas like high-traffic lunchrooms and breakrooms, it may be beneficial to have a day porter replace the bag after the lunch rush and before dinner break hours. This prevents issues of overflow, bag ripping, and unpleasant odors.
You shouldn't have to worry about how often your trash bags are being replaced if your janitorial service provider is doing their job correctly. With Summit, you can always trust that we're going to do everything we can to provide you with the best service each time our employees are in your facility. If you're interested in learning more about how we take care of our clients' facilities, you can call (234) 678-0337 to learn more, or schedule a building walkthrough for your free, no-hassle janitorial services quote.