The DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) last month worked with the D.C. Department of Public Works (DPW) to facilitate the replacement of 45 trash cans in Downtown as part of an area BID replacement project through the DCBID Council, the association of the area’s ten business improvement districts.
In March, the BID’s Quality Assurance Team, assisted by the Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance Ambassadors, surveyed all trash receptacles in the BID to get an accurate count of defects and conditions. Receptacles with worst conditions, such as rusted out bottom plates and damage to the exterior shell, were selected as a part of the replacement batch.
Over two four-hour evening DPW shifts in May, the BID rode along to oversee the replacement and install of the new cans with five different DPW crews. The overall cost savings was $40,000 for the can replacement through BID Council program due to DPW’s 30 percent discount pricing of the Victor Stanley cans.
In fiscal year 2014, the BIDs began working with DPW and the City Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment to replace cans on a ten-year cycle through a partnership. Previously, some BIDs, including the DowntownDC BID, spending their own funds to replace and refurbish cans. The city budgets just over $200,000 a year for the program, which is allocated to the BIDs by the DCBID Council.
As of 2015, D.C.’s BIDs serviced over 1800 trash receptacles and 585 recycling cans in their districts, for a total of approximately 2385 cans, according to the DCBID Council.
Explore the process of the replacement program with the BID’s interactive online story map, created using ArcGIS Online generated by Esri.