Garbage Management in Chicago Multifamily?

[Danny Maller]

I have a 3 unit in the city in a low C or D area. Each unit has its own garbage bin and what my tenants and the surrounding neighbors/home owners do is keep them in the backyard gate until garbage day and then place them in the alley for a day. This is because the local drifter crowd will steal the bins for who knows what purposes. Chicago has pretty much dropped the ball entirely with replacing these bins so now everybody just steals each others bins.

So the problem is, the tenants sort of take turns taking out the garbage but it's getting a little messy. I would say just keep them in the alley but they'll get stolen. Has anyone hired someone to manage garbage takeout, or have any ideas?

[Paul De Luca]

Originally posted by @Danny Maller:

I have a 3 unit in the city in a low C or D area. Each unit has its own garbage bin and what my tenants and the surrounding neighbors/home owners do is keep them in the backyard gate until garbage day and then place them in the alley for a day. This is because the local drifter crowd will steal the bins for who knows what purposes. Chicago has pretty much dropped the ball entirely with replacing these bins so now everybody just steals each others bins.

So the problem is, the tenants sort of take turns taking out the garbage but it's getting a little messy. I would say just keep them in the alley but they'll get stolen. Has anyone hired someone to manage garbage takeout, or have any ideas?

• Put up a sign indicating that the property is under video surveillance
• Label your garbage cans with the proper address
• Install motion sensor light near the garbage cans for deterrence

Otherwise you should stick with the way you've been doing it, I think.