Do we chute ourselves in the foot with garbage?

Here’s a brain-teaser for apartment residents – there may be a sign in your block that says “no bottles, newspapers, coat hangers, cigarettes, umbrellas or brooms.”

What’s it for? The sign relates to facilities used by multiple owners every day, but which are rarely discussed, even though they can be a source of unnecessary costs, unwanted hassle and physical danger as well as undermining recycling.

We refer, of course, to the humble garbage chute, usually accessed by metal tilt-and-drop covers in tiny rooms on each floor of an apartment building.

If that building is older than, say, 10 years, the chute is likely to be simply a long tube that uses gravity to deliver garbage to hoppers on the ground floor where the collected waste is loaded into skips for collection by the local council. 

There is no recycling option in this system.  Those giant, heavy-duty collection bags are headed for landfill.

But now garbage chutes are under scrutiny, partly thanks to a report compiled by Chris Miller, Managing Director of Vantage Strata Management in the ACT and available on their website.

The problem with old-fashioned long-drop garbage chutes is that they are too convenient while, at the same time, being way behind the times.  They are also subject to accidental or deliberate abuse – hence the notices about brooms, coat hangers and umbrellas.

The jamming of a garbage chute can just as easily be attributed to thoughtless disposal of broken or unwanted equipment as it is to the final vengeful act of an owner or tenant driven out by disputes with neighbours or their landlord.

I have seen a building caretaker close to tears as he tried to use a fire hose to flush an umbrella out of a garbage chute, where it was stuck between floors, with an ever-increasing column of accumulated rubbish backing up behind it.

I have heard of residents pouring dirty kitty litter directly down the chute while others have even dropped soiled disposable babies’ nappies and food scraps straight in there, giving no thought to the dirt and smells their offensive deposits would leave behind.

And don’t forget dropping empty wine bottles down a multi-storey tube where they turn into glass “bombs” on impact – potentially injuring workers who happen to be in the vicinity.

As VChris Miller’s report points out, there are many variables in this issue – the ages and sizes of the buildings for a start, not to mention the awareness of the residents and their level of care for the consequences of their actions.

But whatever the circumstances, there is a cost involved in repairing, unblocking and maintaining misused garbage chutes. And there’s a hit to the environment too. The temptation to dump rather than recycle may be too great for some residents.

The choices for strata committees where there is a problem include having electronic access to the chutes and CCTV surveillance of the dumpers.

Or they can weld the chutes shut, forcing owners to carry their garbage to a bin room where they can separate recyclables from landfill (if so inclined). 

Some more recent buildings have separate chutes for recyclables.  Meanwhile architects of new high-end blocks might plump for a system that separates garbage with the push of a button and includes a sophisticated internal washing and scrubbing system.

For those of us who already have old-fashioned garbage chutes in their blocks it’s a question of cost versus convenience especially for investors. 

Are slightly higher levies (and therefore rents) likely to dissuade potential residents less than the lack of a a hole in a wall that makes your garbage just disappear?

Sounds like it’s time we all started talking rubbish.