My apartment's recycling bin was full of trash bags for 3 weeks and I finally did something about it
So our building in Austin has one recycling dumpster for 40 units, and for about 3 weeks straight every time I lugged my bin down there it was stuffed with actual garbage bags. People were just tossing kitchen trash right on top of the cardboard. I got fed up and took photos on my phone for a few days to have proof. Then I printed a simple sign that said "this is recycling, trash goes in the other bin" with a big arrow and taped it at eye level. Honestly I figured it would get ripped down or ignored. But I also emailed our property manager, Marcus, and he actually sent a building-wide text about it. Two weeks later the bin is way cleaner and I have only seen one stray trash bag since. The whole thing cost me about $0 and 15 minutes. Has anyone else gotten a landlord to actually fix a building recycling problem, or did I just get lucky with Marcus?
Small correction, the sign probably did less than you think. Most people tossing kitchen trash in there already know it's wrong, they just don't care because nobody is watching. What actually worked was Marcus sending that building text, because now there's a name behind the rule and people don't want to get called out. The photos helped too, since you gave him something concrete to act on instead of just a complaint. So you didn't really get lucky, you did the two things that make a landlord move, proof and a paper trail.