Kevin Miller is a family man on a humble mission — to free neighborhoods of the unwelcome germs, bacteria, and stench of trash collection day one dirty bin at a time.
His company Wash Bins launched in the Pacific Palisades in 2019 and quickly created a trash bin cleaning trend that spread throughout Southern California. His specialized sanitization trucks power wash recycling, trash, and garden waste bins in 190 degree water, eliminating harmful germs and unpleasant smells.
“It’s like your bin is in a dishwasher on steroids,” said Miller. “We get rid of the germs, flies, poop, spiders and maggots. We disinfect, sanitize, deodorize the inside and the outside and leave it next to your curb 100 percent clean and smelling great.”
While trash bin cleaning services have been popular in Europe for over 30 years, it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States and only began cropping up over the last 10 years.
Wash Bins was the first bin sanitization service to market in Los Angeles. Although it started as a small mom-and-pop entrepreneurial endeavor, the company rapidly took off and now services around 60 cities across the Westside, South Bay, Hollywood, San Fernando Valley, and Ventura regions.
Miller attributes part of this business boom to people’s growing awareness of germs during the pandemic.
Even after they are emptied, trash bins can carry many dangerous bacteria and diseases including tuberculosis, e-coli, salmonella and listeria. Regular cleaning eliminates the risk of infection in addition to lingering odors.
“We started in 2019, and lo and behold, we hit a pandemic where the whole range of views and ideas and terminology changed about sanitation,” said Miller. “Although nobody knew what would happen during the pandemic, we just kept marketing, believing in the businesses and we kept acquiring customers.”
People can sign up online for monthly, quarterly, or one time service and are instructed to leave their bins outside the day after trash collection when Miller’s trucks drive through neighborhoods and clean bins one-by-one.
Users will receive an email reminder the night before a service and a text reminder the morning of to make sure they don’t forget to leave their bins out. If anyone throws debris into the bins while they are sitting out awaiting cleaning service, Miller tells residents not to sweat it as his professional team members will deal with it.
Clara@smdp.com