Audits are incredibly common in industries such as finance or marketing, but what about industrial waste? That’s right — it’s time to shift your business to a more eco-friendly waste management process by reaping the benefits of a waste audit.
Studies show that 77% of items thrown away are not even trash, which means that many (if not most) companies are losing out on valuable recycling opportunities and paying too much for waste removal.
Avoid letting these recycling opportunities pass and consider reaching out to professionals who can complete a waste audit for your business. Read on to learn more about waste audits and what you can expect from the process.
What is a Waste Audit?
A waste audit evaluates a business, company, or facility’s regular waste stream. Professionals will inventory your business’ waste over a period of time and analyze the results to determine the best course of action.
Waste audits are used to assess what a business is throwing away as well as the value that a business might be losing by not properly disposing of waste. By including a waste audit into your business processes, you can experience the worthwhile benefits highlighted in the next section.
Waste Audit Benefits
Waste audits are an important step to ensuring that businesses operate to the best of their ability. Without undertaking an audit, companies make waste management decisions based on guesswork instead of researched information.
Here are some of the various benefits of conducting a professional waste audit:
Save Money
Waste audits allow businesses to reduce their trash by evaluating which items can either be reused, sold, or recycled. This will not only identify potential streams of income but also reduce waste hauling fees thanks to the decreased amount of waste.
Identify How Effective Business Operations Are
Without a waste audit, how do businesses know which wasted management system to implement? Companies likely make major waste management decisions based on guesswork alone, which can prove more costly than beneficial.
Through a waste audit, companies can learn the benefits and aspects in need of improvement in their current waste management operations. Through a professional waste audit, they can make the necessary changes to their current system to ensure maximum waste operations and recycling potential.
Examples may include that a business has vast amounts of recyclables in its trash, which can be addressed by refining a recycling program. Furthermore, a waste evaluation can determine where changes can be made in a business’ purchasing decisions.
Meet the Necessary Certification Standards
While businesses may think that they can simply undertake a waste audit internally, it all comes down to certification. Waste audits form part of the requirements for various certification standards within business operations.
By allowing a professional waste audit to be conducted, your business or company can obtain the necessary certification, allowing more clients to partner with you.
Obtain Verified Data
In addition, waste audits greatly help with verifying the data given to a company by their waste hauler. This is an important aspect to verify, as false or incorrect data can cause hauling fees to skyrocket for no reason.
This verified data will also come in handy when a business needs to evaluate and renegotiate its waste removal contracts.
Measure Your Business’ Success
Through professional waste audits, businesses can create and work towards new waste goals — such as improving recycling — each year. A waste audit will assist in creating the necessary baseline according to which these standards of needed improvement can be measured.
Not only is this process likely to result in major cost savings for a company, but it also educates employees on the importance of recycling. It also creates a sense of teamwork and boosts morale, as employees work together to reach their targets.
The Process of a Waste Audit
Professional waste auditors go through the bags of waste to identify what is being thrown away. This is usually sorted and analyzed according to the amounts, weight, and volume. Waste auditors will also identify which items are being thrown away, and which items are being diverted through other means.
Steps within the waste audit, depending on who you partner with, look something like this:
- A waste audit team is assembled and dates for the audit are set.
- Waste categories are set. This can include everything from paper and cardboard to glass and food waste.
- The necessary tools are gathered.
- Trash is sorted according to the above-mentioned categories.
- Results are analyzed and reported to the relevant parties.
- Based on the findings, professionals evaluate where a business’ waste management systems can be improved and offer suggestions.
From there, business owners can begin implementing cost-effective, eco-friendly solutions to their waste management.
Partner With the Pros at GMR
When partnering with a company to kick off your business’ waste audit, it’s best to stick to waste management professionals like Generated Materials Recovery (GMR), who have a track record of waste management improvement and high-quality business operations.
Receive comprehensive solutions to your waste management with GMR. We understand that waste management may not be the top priority for your business, which is why we strive to seamlessly integrate processes into your business routine. GMR can carefully manage your waste and recycling situation with minimal interruption to your normal operations.
Contact us today for waste audit solutions that will take your business from too much waste to responsible recycling while also allowing you to reap the financial benefits of less waste.
