Developing a waste management plan

Over the last couple of years, the business world and global socio-political narrative, in general, took a very sharp turn in the green direction and put a bright spotlight on some of the established practices no longer considered truly sustainable. We can’t say anybody’s at a loss here since, as much as eco-friendly strategies are doing wonders for our planet, they are also making the economy faster, leaner, and more efficient.

The fact remains, however, that companies that want to reap these benefits need to take some time to rethink some of their workflow instances and make them abide by these new requirements.

Let us then take a look at the couple of tips that should help you refine your waste management plant that, for all intents and purposes, makes one of the most important examples of sustainable business practices.

Reduce the volume of waste your company produces

This is, by far, one of the simplest ways to put most of your waste management concerns to rest. In the case of office space, you will do that by switching your infrastructure to Cloud, cutting down the volume of paper documents, and eliminating as much office equipment as possible. Reusable dishes and cutlery should also prove to be of great help. The situation is a bit more complex with the industrial facilities but clever scheduling, reusable tools and absorbents, and greater utilization of running equipment should bring the level of waste you are producing to a reasonable level. The rest depends mostly on recycling.

Conduct a comprehensive waste stream audit

Now that you have solved some of the biggest waste stream issues, it would be a good idea to take a more in-depth look at the production processes of your company, try to understand them better, and see if you can make additional adjustments to make this pipeline even more disburdened. To do that, you will need to break down all of your company’s processes and:

·         Determine the type and the quantity of the generated waste

·         Identify the areas where the waste can be reduced or diversified

·         Discover new opportunities for reusing and recycling materials

·         Determine what categories of waste are highest

·         See if these materials can be reused in other industries

Invest in new recycling equipment

This may prove to be a considerable upfront investment but keeping recycling activities in-house will save you a lot of money in the long run and even allow you to expand your activities and establish new sources of revenue. Also, the companies like, for instance, Australia’s Waste Initiatives have been rolling out the equipment pieces that are themselves very energy efficient so they produce even stronger long-term savings. Finally, we would like to remind you that countries all around the world are offering subsidies for the development of recycling infrastructure so the purchase shouldn’t present such a steep obstacle.

Set tangible goals for reducing the amounts of waste

Of course, these goals should also be realistic and driven by the data you have gathered during the waste audit. But, once you finally get some numbers that will be possible to reach in a real-life scenario, you will have a much easier job in working backward to find the specific methods that will help you reach these milestones. Do your best to keep your employees engaged in this process as well – their experience will prove to be invaluable for coming up with any sort of sensible strategy. Ideally, this waste reduction committee should include all parties relevant to the waste removal process across the corporate ladder.

Translate new procedures into easy to follow instructions

The observations you have made during the audit should be transparent and easily accessible. That is why you should translate these guidelines into simple instructions and keep them displayed around the premises. Also, you should try to leverage the labels to the fullest possible extent. Waste separation, disposal procedures, and other critical waste management procedures are the easiest to understand if they are explained in an intuitive visual manner. To make this system even more efficient, you should also leverage the color-coding or even mark the appropriate paths for disposing of different types of waste.

Set rewards for compliance with procedures

Last but not least, we would like to remind you that your future waste management plans will be put into reality much more easily if your employees are on board with the strategies and motivated to use them. One way to do that would be to put them at the very core of decision-making which we have already covered. The other is to offer small incentives for passing the important milestones and reward the employees that show the greatest initiative in implementing your strategies. Doing a couple of seminars and training sessions should make everyone more aware of the critical issues at hand.

These few simple steps should help you to come up with and implement a waste management plan that will make your company far leaner and much more sustainable in the long run. As time goes by these efforts will gradually turn from novelty and a chance to improve your operations to a standard you need to meet to even stay competitive. The sooner you realize that the better. After all, it’s always better to be a disruptive force than to play a catch-up game.


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