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Cleaning up Garbage Collection at Home for Seniors01-14-16 | News

Cleaning up Garbage Collection at Home for Seniors
Semi-underground Waste Containers Installed

To solve an unsanitary situation at a senior citizens facility, the owners contracted with Sutera to provide their solution: concrete cylinders that sit five feet below the surface with 39 inches showing above the surface, and a reusable bag suspended inside. When the bag needs emptying, it is lifted out along with the lid it is attached to.

When the residents of a senior citizens home in Waterloo, Ontario, found it too difficult to lift the lid on their dumpster, the decision was made to just leave the lid open at all times. Problem solved.

But then they got a whiff of other problems.

"It is like a third world country here in the summer - the flies, maggots and stench," says Steve Roe, the building's superintendent. "The maggots then find their way into the building."

To address the issue, Luther Manor, an 81-unit, upscale senior living community, contacted Sutera, a manufacturer of an innovative waste collection solution that has been in use in Europe and Canada for awhile, and is now being introduced in the U.S.

Billed as an environmentally friendly, aesthetically appealing alternative to stand-alone dumpsters, wooden enclosures, and roofed structures, the semi-underground concrete containers also took care of other problems according to Bill Higgins, the company's director of business development.

Rainwater used to run through the dumpster and then potentially toxic liquid would leach out the bottom, down to a sidewalk used by, among others, parents and children coming to the daycare center on the property. Parking spaces were being given up so the garbage truck could access the dumpster. The decks of upscale homes that back up to this property face the dumpster and recycling bins. And in general, the area used for the dumpster and bins next to one of the main entrances was "an aesthetic disaster."

Besides having a more attractive appearance and letting the tenants easily dump their garbage without having to keep lids open, the manufacturing company points out that their containers take up less surface space, and that at a little more than three feet high, do not provide a place for criminal activity or concealment in the same way as a traditional dumpster and its enclosure.

The project's principals are extremely happy with the transformation.

"The area has been cleaned up," says Roe. "The residents are pleased with the appearance of the new containers."

"We have gained 4 more parking spaces," adds Ulrich Kuebler, a board member of the facility and the one in charge of the project. "Since the spaces are rented, we will gain additional monthly revenue that help to pay for the renovation. We may put 2 more containers at the other end of the building so the residents don't need to walk so far."