If you’re throwing a large party—whether it’s a 200-person wedding or a 20,000-person outdoor festival—your event will generate trash, particularly if you’re serving food or drink. For each meal, you can usually calculate about one to one-and-a-half pounds of trash per person. The more trash you anticipate, the more trash cans you will need positioned throughout the venue to avoid spillage and littering.
As an event producer, you have three options: buy new ones, rent from an event or party rental site, or purchase cardboard trash boxes to recycle post event. Let’s go over what makes sense from both a budgetary and environmental standpoint.
For smaller indoor events—birthdays, weddings, graduation parties, gender reveals, bar & bat mitzvahs, and branding activations—cardboard trash boxes will look outré, particularly if you have spent a lot on your production build or decor. For these kinds of events, and nicer bigger indoor gatherings like galas, fundraisers, awards shows and corporate meetings, renting Slim Jims or Brutes and covering them with swinging lids and skirts is the most attractive option. Buying is also an option, but then you need to consider where you are going to store your cans afterwards. If you own an event venue, investing in branded, clearly labelled trash management configurations—like those from CleanRiver or Uline or Clear Stream Recycling—makes sense. Some venues may opt to dedicate storage space to stack trash cans and recycling bins that can be trotted out depending on the needs of the event. But sometimes we see event producers buying receptacles only to discard them afterwards—an option that is both expensive and terrible for the environment.
For larger outdoor events held in parks, the city already provides numerous onsite receptacles. However, this may not be enough for a concert, festival, sporting competition, or picnic. Brute Trash cans work well in these instances, particularly if the event is held over a series of days. Cardboard boxes for trash, recycling, and compost are also a good option because they are not as costly and they are recyclable as long as they are not soaked with grease. However, if your outdoor event expects rain or morning dew over multiple days, then reusable plastic Brutes may prove to be the better option as moisture can cause corrugated boxes to break down.
Where do you rent trash cans for an event? Often the web search “trash can rental for events” will bring up a slew of dumpster rental companies. “Recycling bin rentals” searches lead to the same misdirection. Many party rental and event rental companies offer Brute trash can and Slim Jim trash bin rentals. Recycling and compost bins are much harder to come by from event and party rental companies. A few have blue Slim Jim recycling bins, but recycling for events not in California is still somewhat rare. In Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Asheville and Cincinnati, CompostNow offers green waste bins for residences, businesses, and events.
Corrugated boxes can be purchased online and at hardware stores, and are also available through franchise waste haulers, although franchise waste haulers often charge twice as much as what they can be purchased for online. Keep in mind that if you need large numbers of trash boxes, you will need to order them at least three weeks in advance for your event as those orders require freight shipping and come from warehouses all over the United States.
If you are in Los Angeles, PopUP CleanUP proudly services the Los Angeles and Orange County areas with temporary event waste management rentals including:
• Brute trash cans
• Black Slim Jim trash cans, skirts, and lids
• Blue Slim Jim recycling bins and lids
• Trash carts to carry multiple trash bags to dumpsters for outdoor large-scale events
• Pour-Aways, liquid disposal receptacles that divert liquids from dumpsters, both reducing hauling costs and preventing dumpster contamination.
We offer both pickup and delivery service or you can retrieve them directly from our warehouse. If you are unsure as to how many trash cans you need for your event, check out our blog post on this subject or call us today for a free consultation.
