What's the Easiest Way to Order a Dumpster?

What is the easiest way to order a dumpster in Grand Rapids?

Online, of course. And that is why Yello Dumpster has online dumpster ordering available on its front page. With only a few quick keystrokes and a couple of clicks (plus delivery time), all of your disposal needs can be taken care of.  

For customers familiar with what size roll-off dumpster will be necessary for their disposal jobs, it’s a simple matter of filling out a quick form with your name, address, email, dumpster specifications, delivery address, and any special instructions. Clicking “purchase” will send your order to us, and we will promptly contact you to verify your needs, review pricing and schedule your drop off. Occasional dumpster renters may have questions about choosing a dumpster size for a specific job or which materials can be disposed of in roll-off dumpsters.  Fortunately, all of that information can be found on our site as well.  Of course, if you prefer to contact one of our staff members, we would be happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have.

Pick up of your full dumpster in Grand Rapids can be accomplished just as easily.  We have a “request pickup” section on our front page as well for your convenience.  

Ordering a dumpster from Yello Dumpster is as simply as requesting, receiving, and requesting a pick up.  To order your life simplifying dumpster in Grand Rapids, MI today, go to http://www.yellodumpster.com/. And leave the rest to us.

What Happens to the Debris after a Tornado?

In the middle of November the Midwest experienced a swath of severe weather including a late-season outbreak of tornadoes.  The damage extended from Missouri to New York, with 8 resulting fatalities and hundreds of houses and businesses destroyed.  After a tornado touches down, people are primarily concerned about their loved ones and if they survived and are safe.  Then the process of cleaning up and restoring homes and communities begins.  What exactly  does this process look like?  

Unlike what happens in the plot of The Wizard of Oz, tornadoes rarely pick up solitary structures and gently set them down again.  Pictures of tornado-struck communities show miles of debris - uprooted trees and vegetation, cars tossed sideways or upside down, houses with roofs missing, and wooden beams and planking everywhere, mixed with household goods, clothing, doors, windows, and drywall.  The debris from just one storm can be millions of cubic yards of waste.  When a tornado hit Joplin, KS in 2011, one landfill accepted 16,000 truckloads of debris.  That is an enormous clean up job, and a tremendous amount of material handled.  

Once the search for survivors ends and the last of the fires has been put out, the roads must be cleared so that utilities and FEMA (if the area is declared a disaster by the federal government) can get in to do their work.  After that, the first step in the process, sorting, begins.  Because landfills have limited space and it costs money to deposit debris in them, government agencies recommended sorting out whatever can be recycled.  Homeowners will return to their property and take what still remains that is useable, and after that what’s left is sorted and carted or carted and sorted in trucks and roll-off dumpsters, depending on how easily it can be differentiated.  The different categories of waste are:

• Construction/demolition debris - this includes wood, drywall, bricks, tiles siding, and roofing shingles; all the materials that go into building
• Household hazardous waste - these materials are the ones we are familiar with, poisonous and flammable materials that cannot normally be thrown away in the garbage bin including: paints, turpentine, herbicides and pesticides, other poisons, bleaches and cleaning agents, automobile oils and fluids, and batteries.  
• Non-household hazardous waste - this would be toxic materials such as industrial wastes or unidentifiable site wastes
• Animal carcasses
• Trees and brush

Each of these must be treated differently according to their chemistry and disposability, so they require sorting before the they can be finally disposed of.  The options here, depending on material, are recycling, burying (of carcasses), rendering, outdoor burning, incinerating, landfilling, collecting for appropriate disposal (hazardous wastes), and using for fuel (roof shingles).  It’s a very long process to sort through mounds of mixed debris and determine what is still useful and what isn’t and then separate them out.  

Ultimately, much of the above will be landfilled, and so government agencies must determine which landfills can and will accept the onslaught of waste.  Landfills then dispose of the debris according their protocols, either grinding up, burning, or burying it.  Hazardous waste requires special disposal considerations and goes to different facilities.  

When all of the debris has been hauled, sorted, and disposed of, only then can the rebuilding - of a home, a business, a community - begin again.

Is Dumpster Diving Illegal?

It is true that many perfectly good things get thrown away in today’s society - clothes, furniture, decorations, food, useful supplies - too much of it get tossed by businesses and people who have no need for it any more and often no idea of where it might be recycled, re-purposed, or reused.  

In 2008, during the mortgage meltdown crisis in America, the stock market tanked and many people who considered themselves safe and prosperous lost their jobs and most of their assets in the aftermath.  It has been a long and painful road from there for many families - all of which has lead to creative acquisition of goods and services, often through begging, borrowing, or stealing.  Dumpster diving falls in a gray area of the last category, although more and more people are doing it these days, including new groups that style themselves as freegans.

According to freegan.info, freegans are “people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.”  Freegans, in this sense, are vegans (although not all of them) who eat for free from what they find discarded by grocery stores or other sources.  People who scavenge trash but do not eat from it, are known as dumpster divers.  

From a legal perspective, trash thrown out on the curb is fair game for anyone, and it cannot be considered theft to rummage through it and take what you want.  Dumpster diving on private property is a little more complicated, partly because of the trespassing aspect.  Additionally, if the dumpster abuts a building, is behind a fence, or has a sign such as “Private: No Trespassing,” that’s when dumpster divers enter a gray legal area and can be questioned, ticketed or even arrested by the police.  Often stores and home owners will object to dumpster diving on their property because they are concerned about liability.  If someone were to be injured, they could be sued, a most undesirable outcome.  

However, besides the legal risks of dumpster diving, there are also physical ones.  Dumpsters are, by definition, filled with trash, and that trash can be medical waste (and therefore seriously hazardous), decomposing food (with potentially toxic bacteria), or broken things with sharp edges, be they metal, glass, or wood.  Any of those can give you a nasty injury while at the same time infecting it.  Getting in and out of dumpsters can be tricky and dangerous.  You could easily end up straining or breaking something in that attempt to bag some discarded bread or old umbrella stand.  Finally, some people can also be territorial about dumpsters they have “claimed,” and may object to others horning in on “their” dumpsters.  This may be especially true in urban environments where demand is higher and resources scarcer.

For all of the above reasons, rummage through dumpsters at your own risk.

Proper and Improper Dumpster Materials

Roll-off dumpsters, being rather large, are very versatile in what they can contain. Most people have seen dumpsters on construction sites, re-roofing projects, and rental properties, but don’t realize they can also be useful for:

• Recently transferred properties - whether for buyer, seller, or renter, moving tends to generate a significant amount of waste. Perhaps the previous owner left a number of items behind, or the new owner has no idea what to do with the boxes used to move - a dumpster can be a lifesaver. Rental property owners know tenants can leave behind unwanted belongings and trash. Having a good dumpster company on file is a must.


• Yard waste - One good storm can leave behind a great deal of broken branches and debris. Renting a dumpster can be a cheaper way of clearing off your property than calling a tree service.


• Junk removal - Everyone knows at least someone who has a hard time parting with anything. If you have a pack rat in the family, you may be called upon to help clear out an attic, garage, basement, or entire house. Sometimes it’s worth having a garage or an estate sale, and sometimes the dumpster is a better place for broken furniture and plastic knick-knacks.


• Landscaping changes - Did the previous owner of your property border all their flower gardens with railroad ties or broken cement? A dumpster could be an easy solution to what to do with hard-to-recycle items.

While the above suggestions are for what can or should be put in a dumpster, there are also a number of things that should not be disposed of that way. These include: explosives, liquid wastes, pathological or biological waste, radioactive waste, asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, used oil, and sealed drums. Please call for rates before disposing of tires, propane tanks, appliances, or mattresses.
Finally, it should go without saying, but people and animals do not belong in dumpsters. There seems to be a distressing trend in Grand Rapids of dead people being found in or near dumpsters. Deceased bodies belong in a funeral home or a morgue. Do not dispose of your unwanted pets in dumpsters either. This is animal cruelty. The Kent County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of Kent County will both accept found or unwanted animals. Take them there. Animals are not refuse!
To order your life-simplifying dumpster in Grand Rapids, MI, call 616-915-0506.