thebinguy story
Hi there— I’m Jacob. Otherwise known on social media as - the bin guy. No… I did not dream of being a bin cleaner when I was young and yes… my parents do wonder where they went wrong. (Joke)
I started cleaning bins in the back end of 2023 after seeing a local competitor on an estate in my hometown. I’d never heard of, let alone seen anybody cleaning wheelie bins. I had no idea it was even a thing. Turns out, it’s actually pretty popular and has been for decades.
I was intrigued. So, I start doing some research and discover something that stood out to me. Unlike with window cleaning, pressure cleaning, pool cleaning (famously - thepoolguy); there was very little if ANY social media / brand presence for this business.
If I’d never heard of it, there was a good chance that others hadn’t heard of it either.
Before we skip to the part where I begin to grow on social media thanks to a few money related videos and consequent… oh lets call them “negative” comments; lets start at the beginning.
I’m a strong believer in “just start”. I’m not an engineer, I knew nothing about hydraulics or plumbing, I wasn’t even aware of the different types of set-ups that can be manufactured. However, this is not my first business, therefore I knew that if I just got started, the dots would connect themselves in front of me.
Before thebinguy was Blue Ribbon Bin Cleaning Ltd. Myself and my business partner at the time didn’t spend long on branding and social media in the beginning (even though I knew that would change), we just wanted to test demand and get started.
We began by posting in our local area community group on Facebook and what followed was unbelievable. 75+ enquiries overnight, all wanting to sign up to monthly cleaning. For context, we hadn’t bought one piece of equipment at this point and both of us were working full time in highly demanding jobs.
As a few of you may have seen from my social media posts, we bought a couple of small tanks, connected a couple of cheap battery powered pressure washers and began scrubbing and scratching our way through the bins.
Six months of hard graft and long days later, enough money was saved to purchase a van and I began designing the system.
If you’ve got this far into reading my story and have taken the time to view my content and click the link onto this site, there is a good chance that you’re interested in converting a van and getting started yourself. There is even a good chance that you have shopped around and done your research into ready made machines such as trailers or pick-ups trucks. I did the exact same thing.
I was hungry to expand my business and maximise my output, so of course, I needed a professional system. I visited 3 different manufacturers up and down the country to price up a bin cleaning system. I must say here, in no way am I discounting these machines, the vast majority of them are far more sophisticated than mine with all the bells and whistles - automatic robot spray arms, hydraulic bin lifts, machines large enough to clean multiple bins and commercial bins. There was however, a few issues that I wasn’t happy with. Number one… price. The cheapest machine I could find was £15k + VAT. Yes it was a well built machine, yes it would be a fast lead time which would allow me to grow quicker but this well built machine gave me another issue… Parts and problems. The more complicated the machine, the more difficult it would be to solve engineering issues on the road and further, to get parts to solve these issues.
In my opinion, bin cleaning customers care about 2 things - price and reliability. Bin cleaning, more often than not, is not close to the top of peoples list of priorities; they want peace of mind that they consistently get cleaned and for a price that is barely noticed at the end of each month. Inevitably, with all of these cleaning systems, things will go wrong and parts will need replacing, how can I stay reliable if my fancy trailer breaks and I have to travel 200 miles to visit a specific manufacturer, in order to get a part replaced?
Long story short, my arrogance and ‘DIY’ attitude got the better of me (I’m sure this will one day be my downfall). I decided to design my own system, using the best components of all of these machines on the market but simplifying everything as much as I could. Do I really need a hydraulic bin lift? - No, I can lift the bin into the van myself. Do I really need the machine to clean the bin automatically using a robot arm? - No, I’m happy to stand and spray the bin myself. After 6 months of R&D and with the help of people in the industry that I am forever grateful, the system was fitted into my small van and I had the ability to clean more than 3 times as many bins as I was doing 6 months before, for HALF the cost of buying one off the shelf.
