In a cost-saving measure, the City of Mesa, Ariz., initiated a cleaning program that has everyone involved: City employees empty their individual trash receptacles.

The idea of sharing trash-dumping duties came from the employees themselves when administrators asked for new money-saving ideas.

“We literally got a couple hundred suggestions of things we could do,” says Paul Wenbert, deputy city manager.

The idea’s simplicity combined with its potential for savings made it stand out from the others, he says.

Employees empty their trash into a common receptacle where cleaning workers pick it up.

“It’s pretty straightforward,” Wenbert says. “You are on your way to the drinking fountain and you drop off your garbage.”

The city projects $120,000 in annual savings, which makes up for an 8 percent decrease in the municipality’s janitorial budget. Wenbert explains that the savings come from the decreased labor and time it takes the cleaning service to visit each work station, bag trash and move on to the next. With a staff of 4,000 employees, it takes a long time to empty all the employees’ trash.

“We are paying the janitorial service to come to every work station, every day — even though all wastebaskets may not be full,” he says. “This way the employees control [trash dumping] themselves.”

Each floor of the city’s buildings has a central location and the cleaning service will only have to go to one place on each floor to collect the waste. Eliminating a number of trash pick-up stops leaves more time for cleaning restrooms and common areas.

During the budgeting process, the city was considering employee layoffs to cut costs. Now that employees are emptying their wastebaskets, the city does not need to cut positions.

The new employee trash-dumping program was phased into city buildings this summer. So far, no one has complained about the new concept.

“People want to do what they can to pitch in,” Wenbert says. “Maybe every employee feels that they are doing at least a little something to help with our budget situation.”