What Is The Bar On Your Garbage Bin For?

The garbage bin you roll to the curb a few times a week is intentionally designed with unique features to make storing, moving, and emptying your trash much easier. This way, you don't have to rely entirely on manual labor just to get rid of your waste. It's made of thick, durable plastic that can withstand wind, rain, and other harsh weather. You've probably noticed the bar in the back, nestled between the two wheels. That is there to help stabilize the wheels and can be used to easily tilt the can. With one foot on the bar and two hands on the ergonomic handle, you can tip the can back just enough so the weight shifts to the wheels, then all you have to do is roll it down, and it'll be ready for your local curbside pickup day. The larger metal bar on the front doesn't have such an obvious use, but it actually serves a pretty important purpose, not for you, but for the hardworking sanitation workers who come around once or twice a week.

That bar, often called a catch bar, lift bar, or stop bar, is what the garbage truck's tipper mechanism grabs onto. The tipper lifts the bin and dumps its contents into the truck, reducing the amount of human involvement. This makes collection easier, safer, and cleaner, which is important since many of us don't clean our exterior garbage cans as often as we should. Without the lift bar and tipper, garbage collectors would likely have to manually dump the trash into the back of the truck, which can quickly become back-breaking work when you have so many houses to get through.

When the garbage truck pulls up in front of your house, it's likely equipped with a tipper, which is an automated arm that grabs and lifts your trash bin using the metal stop bar on the front. The tipper usually has a U-shaped bracket that hooks onto the stop bar, allowing it to lift and dump the trash can's contents into the truck. Depending on the truck's design, the tipper might be on the back or on the side of the vehicle.

If it's on the back, sanitation workers typically wheel the can over to the truck, hook the stop bar onto the tipper, let it empty the bin, and then roll it back to the curb. If the tipper is on the side, the truck can pull up next to your home, and the arm automatically grabs the can by the stop bar, dumps it, places it back, and then moves on to the next one. That's why how you position your garbage can is important.

Placing it the wrong way can slow things down or make a sanitation worker's job harder. Your garbage can should be placed with the metal lift bar facing the street, so the tipper can easily latch onto it. Also, you'll need to leave at least three feet between each bin and any nearby objects like a mailbox, fence, or parked car. That extra space allows the arm enough room to maneuver effectively, without causing any damage or knocking another can over. Needless to say, it's an essential feature!