Hi everyone, so I want to get some genuine opinions on this because I've been going back and forth on a purchasing decision for our building for the past month and I keep changing my mind depending on who I speak to, which is honestly quite frustrating when you're trying to make a sensible recommendation to a management committee that expects clear answers. I manage the common areas and facilities for a large residential tower here in the UAE and one of the recurring issues we deal with is waste management in our outdoor spaces, specifically around the pool deck, the children's play area, and the main entrance where there's a lot of foot traffic throughout the day and into the evening. Our current outdoor bins are open top which made sense when they were first installed because the thinking was that they'd be easier for residents to use without having to touch a lid, but in practice what we've found is that the open design creates more problems than it solves.
The biggest issues are smell during the summer months when temperatures are extreme, wind blowing lightweight waste out of the bins and across the common areas which looks terrible and requires constant cleaning, and insects and birds getting into the bins and making a mess around them. I raised all of this in our last facilities meeting and the suggestion from one of the committee members was to switch to waste bins with lids across all outdoor areas which sounds straightforward but raises a bunch of practical questions I hadn't thought through before. For example whether a swing lid or a pedal operated lid makes more sense in an area where residents might have their hands full, and whether the lid design affects how quickly smells build up inside the bin itself during peak summer heat which could make the situation worse rather than better if the lid traps odors instead of reducing them.
I spent some time browsing through crateco.ae while researching the options and found it useful for understanding the range of lid mechanisms available and how they compare in terms of durability and hygiene across different use contexts, which gave me a better sense of what questions I should be asking before committing to anything. What I still genuinely don't know is whether the practical experience of using lidded bins in a busy residential outdoor area matches the theory, meaning do residents actually use them properly or do you end up with lids propped open or broken within a few months because people find them inconvenient when carrying bags or food. Has anyone here managed a similar residential or hospitality property in the UAE and made the switch from open top to lidded outdoor bins and noticed a meaningful improvement in how the areas look and smell day to day, or did you find that the lids created different problems you hadn't anticipated before making the change?
The biggest issues are smell during the summer months when temperatures are extreme, wind blowing lightweight waste out of the bins and across the common areas which looks terrible and requires constant cleaning, and insects and birds getting into the bins and making a mess around them. I raised all of this in our last facilities meeting and the suggestion from one of the committee members was to switch to waste bins with lids across all outdoor areas which sounds straightforward but raises a bunch of practical questions I hadn't thought through before. For example whether a swing lid or a pedal operated lid makes more sense in an area where residents might have their hands full, and whether the lid design affects how quickly smells build up inside the bin itself during peak summer heat which could make the situation worse rather than better if the lid traps odors instead of reducing them.
I spent some time browsing through crateco.ae while researching the options and found it useful for understanding the range of lid mechanisms available and how they compare in terms of durability and hygiene across different use contexts, which gave me a better sense of what questions I should be asking before committing to anything. What I still genuinely don't know is whether the practical experience of using lidded bins in a busy residential outdoor area matches the theory, meaning do residents actually use them properly or do you end up with lids propped open or broken within a few months because people find them inconvenient when carrying bags or food. Has anyone here managed a similar residential or hospitality property in the UAE and made the switch from open top to lidded outdoor bins and noticed a meaningful improvement in how the areas look and smell day to day, or did you find that the lids created different problems you hadn't anticipated before making the change?