Airbnb trash and recycling instructions template
Guests generally want to do the right thing with trash and recycling, they just don't know your setup. A short, complete paragraph solves it.
- Trash and recycling bin lines
- Pickup day and bulk item guidance
- What guests don't need to sort
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Trash & recycling
Tips
- 1If your area has strict recycling rules, mention them. If it doesn't, say so, "nothing else to sort" is often the reassurance a guest actually wants.
- 2Say what happens with bins already at the curb versus not, that single line prevents most of the confusion.
- 3Keep it to four or five lines, this is one of the least exciting parts of a guest's stay and doesn't need much more than that.
When you need Trash & recycling
Guests almost always want to do the right thing with waste. What they lack is knowledge of your specific setup: which colour bin takes what, whether the council sorts glass separately, and where the bins actually live. Absent that, they either guess or leave bags on the counter, and both create work for whoever cleans next.
It matters more than its dullness suggests, because contaminated recycling can mean a missed collection, and a missed collection means overflowing bins arriving at the same time as your next guest. One short paragraph prevents a problem that compounds.
Where it goes
Physically by the bins, where the decision is made. A guest standing in the kitchen holding a glass bottle will not scroll back through a message thread to work out which bin it belongs in. A line in the welcome message helps; a card above the bins is what actually gets used.
Common mistakes
Using official waste-stream names
Councils say things like mixed dry recyclate. Guests recognise colours and objects. Say the blue bin takes bottles, cans, and cardboard.
Not saying what needs no sorting
Telling guests there is nothing else to separate is often the most reassuring line on the card, and it stops over-thinking that leads to wrong guesses.
Asking guests to put bins out without saying when
If collection is not during their stay, this leads to bins sitting on the street for days. Say the day, or handle it yourself.
Ignoring the checkout overlap
If checkout falls the morning of collection, that needs its own sentence. It is the one case where guest action genuinely matters.
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