Recycling and yard-waste carts get gross too: here's why to clean them

When people think about a dirty bin, they picture the trash can. The recycling cart seems clean, after all, it holds rinsed bottles and flattened boxes, not garbage. The yard-waste cart just holds leaves and clippings, which came from outside anyway. Both assumptions are reasonable, and both are wrong. These carts get gross too, just more quietly.

Why recycling carts are not as clean as they look

Almost no one rinses recyclables perfectly. The bit of soda left in a can, the film in a peanut butter jar, the sauce clinging to a takeout container, all of it goes into the cart and slowly drips to the bottom. That residue is sugar and food, and it does exactly what it does in a trash can:

• It ferments, turning sweet and sour and giving the cart a smell of its own.
• It attracts flies, which do not care whether a container is labeled recycling or trash, only that there is food on it.
• It feeds bacteria and mold on the walls and floor of the cart.
• It bakes on in the heat, becoming a sticky film that no longer rinses away with rain.

A recycling cart usually needs attention less often than a trash can, because it gets less raw food waste, but "less often" is not "never." If it smells, it is overdue.

Yard-waste carts have their own problem

Yard-waste and compost carts seem like they should be the cleanest of all, but organic material is organic material. Grass clippings and leaves get wet, pack down, and rot. Add kitchen scraps if you compost food, and the cart behaves a lot like a trash can. Decaying plant matter produces its own pungent, earthy-sour smell, holds moisture for days, and grows the same molds that can trigger allergies and asthma. A wet, packed yard-waste cart in July is no one's idea of fresh.

The case for cleaning all your carts

There is a practical reason to think beyond the trash can. The carts usually sit side by side, and they hit the curb together on the same morning. Cleaning only the trash can while a smelly recycling or yard-waste cart sits next to it is a bit like washing one hand. The flies and odor from a neglected cart will happily drift over to its freshly cleaned neighbor, undoing some of the benefit.

We clean any curbside cart

This is exactly why our service is not limited to trash cans. We clean, sanitize, and deodorize any standard curbside cart, trash, recycling, or yard waste, with the same 200°F water that kills 99.9% of germs, and we capture the wastewater for proper disposal rather than letting it run into the street. That is also why our pricing is built around how many carts you have rather than which kind: one cart, two carts (a popular pick is trash plus recycling), or a bigger setup that routes to a quick quote.

Let us handle the gross part

If your trash can is on a plan but the recycling or yard-waste cart next to it never gets touched, adding it is the easy upgrade, just pick the number of carts that matches your curb.

Lincoln Bins cleans, sanitizes, and deodorizes your bins right on the curb on your trash day, you never touch a dirty can. See plans and pricing, or book a first clean in about two minutes.