wanting to start a wheelie bin cleaning service

cottager

debtfreeatlonglast wrote: »

... and it is sepa who will enforce this.

SEPA is the environmental protection agency in Scotland yes, but in England & Wales the equivalent regulator is the Environment Agency, or the NIEA in Northern Ireland.

Slinky

DKLS wrote: »

Do people really have their bins cleaned?
Its a bin, its supposed to stink, if it gets too bad I squirt a bit of bleach in it. I wouldnt dream of paying someone to clean it.

I've been having ours done for the past few months. Our normal rubbish goes in different coloured sacks/recycling boxes. The bins here are for garden waste and now food waste. Through the summer the bins can get smelly with rotting grass and teabags etc, so a clean and deodorise once a month for £3.50 is well worth it in my opinion. Our chap comes round shortly after the bins have been emptied with a van which takes all the waste water away with him.

I guess it depends whether your rubbish is in contact with the bin, or whether it's in black sacks inside the bin as to how messy your bins get and therefore how much of a problem you percieve it is.

motorguy

Ste_C wrote: »

If your car valeting business is struggling, what makes you think this will be any different?

Having your wheelie bin cleaned is not essential, in fact it's barely needed at all. My two bins have been cleaned once each in the last year and they're fine. They smell a little, but only when the bin is open.

I cannot understand why people would pay to have their bins cleaned. There is a wheelie bin cleaner who lives near to me, but I have never seen him cleaning a bin and I know nobody who uses him.

As has been mentioned, even in a positive economic climate you'd need to clean hundreds of bins each week. In a recession when people are cutting back on non-essentials it seems crazy.

+1

I agree totally. Its a non essential. You could spend several thousand easily setting this up, and struggle to recoup it never mind make a profit.

The tricky bit is going to be extracting money out of people. It could take as long to do that as to clean their bins - particularly as you'd end up having to go back in the evenings.

Spongebob_53

I run a wheelie bin cleaning service and recycle the water and have over 600 loyal customers on my books, clean over 1000 bins every 4 weeks and started with none in July '08. It is hard work getting your customers but if you give a quality reliable, friendly service it will grow by word of mouth, also canvass door to door, leaflets drops, adverts in local free mags and small shop adds.Start in the Spring as summer is your growth time. I doubled my customers this year and am able to employ a part time employee, always think ahead

jamesy

Spongebob 53

What sort of radius do you have to travel for your customers, and what sort of payment method do you use


thanks

lulu650

We used to have our bin cleaned once a fortnight. Very efficient, came straight after the dustbinmen had been but at £3.50 a pop just couldn't justify the expense anymore.

motorguy

Spongebob_53 wrote: »

I run a wheelie bin cleaning service and recycle the water and have over 600 loyal customers on my books, clean over 1000 bins every 4 weeks and started with none in July '08. It is hard work getting your customers but if you give a quality reliable, friendly service it will grow by word of mouth, also canvass door to door, leaflets drops, adverts in local free mags and small shop adds.Start in the Spring as summer is your growth time. I doubled my customers this year and am able to employ a part time employee, always think ahead

Assuming £1 a time, you're grossing £1000 a month before running costs, tax, national insurance, wages?

Anastasia

I have just paid £28 for the year in advance. Great service. Bin cleaned every two weeks.

elektra-2007

i would love a bin cleaner round here, and a window cleaner, oh and a gardner who will cut grass!!
People are cutting back, but I think people are willing to pay somone to do jobs they dont have time for, or dont like doing, especially if the cost is low.
If you could do this aswell as your valeting id go for it, shame you cant keep all the equipment on board as you could offer car washing to the same housholds. (Id also pay for somone to come wash my car as I dont have time to do that either)

Spongebob_53

pgilc1 wrote: »

Assuming £1 a time, you're grossing £1000 a month before running costs, tax, national insurance, wages?

Avg. price £2.50 per bin clean