Sustainable Waste Management

Waste is nearly always a reporting topic, and a win/win in terms of emissions savings. Even if you only have a small business, knowing exactly what your waste streams are and making sure as much as possible is diverted from landfill contributes towards reducing your carbon footprint. The following article gives organisation guidance on the steps involved in pulling together all the information required to analyse the carbon footprint of your waste management systems and make real changes that can benefit the environment.

Waste Audit

A site audit is the first step in Sustainable waste management. What bin systems are in place, where they are located and what goes into them can tell a lot about whether a company is ensuring that as much waste as possible is recycled and diverted to/from landfill. A look at the waste reports from your waste collection agency can also augment that data i.e kgs of waste collected. For example, if your physical audit showed that the a lot of waste was going into the mixed municipal/Black bin and those figures are high on the reporting, then there are emissions saving to be made by encouraging better recycling practices.  It is also worthwhile having a discussion with your waste disposal agency about disposal methods and pickup data so you can calculate transport emissions.

Data Management

The waste audit and disposal agency reports will form the baseline data for your waste management streams and will highlight areas for improvement. These should be input into a spreadsheet with organisational boundaries so the information can be tracked over time. Data Sources should be documented as well for follow up each year. I like to use the ISO 14001 Guidelines for this template which requires the following information:

• Type of Waste (Plastic, Metal, Carboard, Mixed etc.)

• Waste Category (Hazardous/Non-Hazardous)

• Disposal Method (Incineration/Landfill)

• Disposal Agency

• Weight in Kgs

• If its for own operations or clients

• EWC Code

• Emission Factor for Waste Stream (Ensure source is recorded)

Stakeholder Engagement

Waste concerns everyone in the business, but some more then others. Potential changes to polices and procedures around sustainable waste management should be discussed with key stakeholders after the initial data collection phase to give people opportunities to raise concerns and develop realistic objectives for change.

Behaviour change for success

The achieve their sustainable waste management objectives organisations will need to consider behaviour change strategies, Staff will have existing habits around where they put their waste and will need clear instruction about any new processes. It will be important to send an internal communications about the change and create new signage to support the change. Maybe even incentivise e.g an activity day if the organisation improve recycling by 20%. Many disposal agencies will give free training to help this process as well. The objectives should also be included in the  business objectives and any company training/HR manuals.  A system change like this is not a set and forget its a process that will need to be monitored closely at the start and then reviewed each year to ensure objectives are being achieved.

Further readings

ISO 14001 Guidelines

GHG Protocol Waste