THAT odious, odoriferous chore of cleaning the household rubbish bins may be no more if Paul Smith has anything to do about it.
Mr Smith runs Bin Bath, a small business that cleans, deodorises and treats both commercial and household rubbish bins.
The former Telstra employee bought the business three years ago. It had been operating in Perth since 1989 but Mr Smith believes the previous owners had tried to take on too much of the metropolitan market.
These days Mr Smith concentrates on the Perth CBD, the western suburbs and the southern Swan-riverside council areas between Victoria Park and Fremantle.
“I had always wanted to be in business and this was a good chance to get a business of my own,” he said.
His business can clean up to 200 bins a day.
The Bin Bath truck calls soon after the council rubbish collection and lifts the bins into its enclosed cleaning chamber where they are blasted with high-pressure hot water and disinfectant. The final stage involves a fly repellent treatment.
The company’s workload varies 60-40 between commercial and domestic bins.
“This replaces a job people don’t like doing,” Mr Smith said.
“It’s a problem a lot of people have and I thought this was a good solution.
“In a way we’re a variation on the mowing or home handyman contractor.”
He said work had been growing steadily since he took over the business.
“I do a bit of advertising and get work from referrals or from people who see our trucks,” Mr Smith said.
The company currently runs two trucks around Perth and employs one full-time and one casual employee.
