Two ways to deter people from dumpster diving in your skips
Dumpster diving has taken off in Australia, even though it is not legal in some parts of the country. If you have noticed people rummaging through your premises skips and want to put a stop to this, here are some ways to deter them from doing this.
Consider swapping the current skips for ones with high walls
If the skips you have on your premises at the moment are ones with stout walls, you might want to swap them for skips with higher walls. If the walls of the skip are, for instance, over 2 metres high, those who want to dumpster dive in these bins will struggle to get into them, as they will have to either climb up the skip's walls or use a stepladder. They are unlikely to attempt the former unless they are very agile and tall, and probably won't try out the latter, due to how inconvenient it would be to carry a stepladder with them when travelling from one skip site to another.
This might not stop the highly determined dumpster divers but it should definitely deter a lot of them. If you decide to do this, you should provide any staff who are responsible for putting rubbish in your skips with a small stepladder so that they don't have to try to hurl heavy rubbish bags over each skip's high walls.
Move your skip bins
Most business owners keep their skip bins at the back of their premises, to ensure that their customers don't have to see or smell the rubbish inside of them. However, if your bins are currently stowed at the back of your premises and dumpster divers are regularly rooting through them, it might be best to move them. You might, for example, want to place them near the premises' car park instead.
Because dumpster diving is frowned upon (or even illegal in some places), those who do this activity normally choose skip bins that are hidden from view so that they'll be less likely to be seen whilst they're 'diving'. If you move your skip bins to your premises car park, which is busy and well-lit for most of the day, your local dumpster diving enthusiasts probably won't try to rummage through these bins as they will know that either your customers or staff could see them.
If you move the bins to this type of busy spot on your premises, you may need to be a bit more conscious about the smells coming from them. For example, you might need to put food scraps in airtight, sealable bags before putting them in the bins and you might need to hang a couple of air fresheners inside the containers. Learn more about managing your skip bins by contacting local garbage collecting services.