In many cases, the responsibility of cleaning and maintaining a garbage chute in privately owned buildings falls to the landlord. Although a receptacle for unwanted waste, it is important from the tenant's point of view that the chute works as it should and does not pose a risk to their health. Surprisingly, an improperly maintained garbage chute can pose more than one risk to a tenant. Here's why a clean and functioning garbage chute is important to your tenants and how to properly clean the chute.

Avoid Health Risk from Airborne Germs

The way that garbage chutes work means that there is a constant draught running through the chute, coming from below and moving upwards. When the garbage chute is opened by a tenant, any germs or bacteria that have been allowed to accumulate on the top of the chute will become airborne thanks to this draught. There is a risk that these germs can be inhaled; either way it is an unpleasant thought.

Avoid Fire Risk from Paper

When disposing of food, it is easy to spill some onto the chute. Some substances are, or become, sticky and cause paper or card to become stuck on contact. Often, the tenant will not want to touch the mess and will simply close the chute with the paper stuck in place. Should a fire happens to start nearby, there is a chance that this paper could ignite, helping the fire to spread. This could then threaten all of the people in the building, not just where the fire broke out.

Do a Split Clean

As a landlord, it is unlikely that you have the time to spend cleaning the whole chute. To make things easier, consider splitting the task with a hire company like Qwik Chutes. It is easy for you to check all of the chute openings and clean them if you find any mess. The cleaning company you hire can use special extended spray guns to clean the length of the chute; they can also clean the chute at floor level, if you do not want to do it yourself. Splitting the cleaning like this means that you save some money on the costs, while at the same time you ensure that there are no risks to tenants from the chute.

As a general guide, consider hiring a garbage chute cleaning company around once a year to clean out the chutes for you. Check the chutes yourself and clean them more regularly, perhaps once every four weeks or so.