Trash bin cleaning in Pompano Beach

Pompano Beach splits into two very different service problems. East of Federal Highway — Old Pompano, Hillsboro Shores, the streets around the inlet — you have salt air, older homes on smaller lots, and a serious fishing culture. Bins here regularly take fish frames and shrimp shells, and in summer that is a two-day clock before the smell reaches the neighbors. Salt also works on the metal hinge pins and axles, so carts on the barrier island age faster than the ones inland.

West of I-95, the picture is condominium and golf-community living: Palm Aire, Cresthaven, and the large managed communities where trash service is shared and carts belong to the association rather than to any one resident. Shared carts are nobody's responsibility until they become everybody's problem, which is why HOA and property managers are a large share of what we do in this city.

Pompano's older neighborhoods also sit low, and heavy summer rain leaves standing water in and around cart corrals. A bin that holds an inch of warm water in its base for a week is not a storage container any more — it is a mosquito habitat with a lid. Draining, washing and treating the interior is what breaks that cycle.