Apartment Bin Store System

Accessgreen has created an efficient and affordable management system for apartment bin stores that offers an end-to-end service – from installation to ongoing education – that leads to significant savings in bin charges. The average saving for an apartment building using the accessgreen system is 30 per cent.

When your apartment block sign ups with accessgreen, there are three steps to getting the system in place: informing and engaging with the residents, configuring and managing the access control system for the bin store and ongoing education and monitoring.

In order to gain access to the bin store, residents have to sign up to the accessgreen system. To activate their account, users must sign up to the terms and conditions.

Resident engagement

The first step in the process is to bring the residents on board. At the outset, each apartment will receive a signup package that provides information about how to sort household waste, house rules, how the bin store will be accessed, and what can they expect from the new bin store system.

80 pc of people say they would recycle more if the correct facilities were available

To enhance co-operation we clearly spell out what is expected and what will be prohibited in terms of using the bin store. Education is an important part of this process. To this end, the pack that each resident receives contains a leaflet clearly spelling out what can and cannot be recycled according to council policy on recycling.

Access control and monitoring

The bin store is a resource that should be efficiently run. To manage a resource, the first step is to manage who can and cannot access it. Authorised residents can open the door of the bin store using our unique cloud-based lock system.

This means that people not authorised to use it – such as non-residents, commercial enterprises, non-fee-compliant units  – are blocked. This immediately halts fly-tipping and dramatically increases fee compliance.

The main reason for not recycling in an apartment block is incorrect sorting or contamination by other people. After all, with communal bins, users are not acting alone, they are acting as a group.

The second step to managing a resource is ensuring that people use it correctly. This means ensuring that infringements are appropriately penalised. Accessgreen has developed a more efficient approach to monitoring and penalties. Using resident participation, CCTV and sensors with access logs, we can retrospectively identify infractions  and promptly issue a warning and/or fine.

Our research has shown that in communal bin stores, up to 30 pc of waste can be from non-authorised users.

Ongoing improvement

Once the first two steps are completed, we accompany the residents on a journey to help them meet their own aspirations to recycle more.

In Ireland, the choice a resident makes about which bin to put a plastic bottle into has marked implications in terms of bin charge costs for the management company. Ongoing support and education is the key here: we provide flyers and signage that provides clear and easily accessed information about, for example, what plastics can and cannot be recycled.

And we also offer updates to residents about improved recycling rates and organise recycling initiatives.

Our ongoing service also involves helping you to monitor costs, usage, waste metrics and resident sentiment.

This means the savings you make with accessgreen will continue long into the future.