For all businesses, improving their waste management will bring many positives. Less waste reduces the cost of waste disposal, lowers the carbon footprint of your company, and improves your reputation with your customers and employees.
Implementing the following actions can greatly improve your company’s green credentials:
Preventing waste generation
By working with suppliers, you can reduce any unnecessary packaging in your business.
The process involves auditing incoming and outgoing products by reviewing how they are packaged. After this, a strategy can be formed by planning steps to reduce the level of packaging.
One strategy is that buying in bulk may reduce the level of packaging compared to smaller-volume purchases.
Another strategy may include switching to digital documents instead of using paper and ink.
In staff canteens, the promotion of less disposal of waste food packaging and offering staff benefits to reduce their carbon footprint can reduce waste generation.
Reusing instead of throwing away
In many cases, your waste can be repurposed in-house instead of being disposed of. Cardboard boxes from incoming goods cans can be repurposed as packing items for shipping out items to be posted or shipped. Shredded paper or cardboard could be used instead of purchasing bubble wrap.
Investing in recycling machinery
Businesses can improve their rates of recycling by purchasing or renting a cardboard baler. Higher levels of recycling are achieved with a baler compared to putting it in a waste bin. The material is compacted, which means fewer collections are needed to deliver waste to be recycled. As balers help pre-sort waste material, there is a lower risk of contaminating the recycling material with other waste streams.
Staff training on what to recycle
84% of households in the UK are contaminating their recycling in the process of ‘Wish cycling’.
Many well-intentioned employees could be contaminating recycling bins with waste that cannot be recycled and soiling the other recycling materials.
It’s important to train employees on the correct disposal of waste and recyclable materials. In many cases, offering clear signage and guidelines in disposal areas can also reinforce correct disposal processes.
Hiring a waste management consultant
The world of recycling technology and local waste disposal legislation is constantly changing. A waste management consultant can bring fresh ideas on what can be recycled and business practices improved. In some cases, they know specialist recyclers that are collecting difficult-to-recycle materials and processing them. Consultants will also be aware of changing legal requirements and possible government grants that can help businesses.
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