Reducing Waste in Waste Management: What You Can Do

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As a waste management company, it might seem a misnomer to produce waste and be wasteful. However, as odd as it might sound, there is more than one way to create waste within a company, and waste management companies aren't impervious to being wasteful. 

 

Discovering strategies to enhance processes, boost productivity, and manage waste and resources more effectively can lead to significant improvements for waste companies, instilling a sense of optimism for a better future for both customers and the company.

This article will delve into practical and effective ways to enhance your waste management operations, providing reassurance that these strategies are feasible and can lead to continual improvements.

Audit

In the first instance, you need to audit your company to see exactly how it is operating now. Look at absolutely everything that occurs during the working week, follow the process from beginning to end, and document each step in the process, the staff involved in the processes, resources used, and outcomes. You're doing nothing at this stage but collecting analytical data to help you get a better overview of exactly what is happening and when and what the impact is.


Utilise Technology

Technology can be instrumental in allowing you to identify and remove any barriers to efficiency and uncover improved ways of working.


You can use route optimization technology to plan your routes on a daily basis, avoiding traffic and plotting the best routes around your collection areas so nothing is missed and no time is wasted.


Other options to consider to help make improvements are the use of AI to aid in sorting waste or recycling as well as data collection to enhance operations and tackle issues you might keep coming up against regularly, introducing smart bins to automatically monitor trash levels and schedule pickups when needed so no wasted trips are conducted. RFID or GPS tracking allows you to monitor waste movement to ensure transparency in the waste management process so you can be sure you are meeting targets and requirements. You can implement robotics to aid in waste collection and sorting or look into the viability of pneumatic waste pipes that take waste from collection points to processing centers, thus reducing the need to send out trucks to collect waste. This CurbWaste industry glossary can help you understand terms and technology that can help you make improvements.

Operational Costs

Waste management is not just about the physical waste you collect from customers or the waste you produce at the processing plant yourself. It's about addressing waste in all areas, and in such areas, you might be experiencing financial waste.

Operational costs can be debilitating if you don't control your spending. You need to address each cost individually to cut wasteful spending or identify areas where you can save money.

It might be that old, outdated trucks are costing you more in the long run for repairs or time spent collecting waste as they're not fit for modern collection needs. You might also find that your wage bills are excessive, and you need to reconfigure your operational hours and duties to better utilise staff for greater impact and value.

Take a look and conduct a financial audit of all of your income and expenses. Identify waste areas you can start overhauling to reduce waste from your spending.

Implement a Circular Economy

A circular economy in waste management is a system that aims to eliminate waste and promote the continual use of resources. It involves repairing, recycling, and reusing items as much as possible, thereby reducing the need for new purchases and reducing waste.

This means you should use equipment for as long as possible or until it is no longer feasible to do so. Then, you need to look at how it can continue to be used, i.e., broken down for parts for other equipment, recycled into something else, or sold for parts, for example, so the components can still be used.

Always look at everything you use or even collect to see how it can be used in various ways so you reduce less waste; purchasing fewer new items and focusing on sustainability helps you literally cut your waste both as a company from the waste you collect from your customers.

Items such as computers, machinery, cell phones, vehicles, safety equipment, and tools can all be part of a waste management company's circular economy. By extending the lifespan of these items through repair, recycling, and reuse, you can significantly reduce waste and promote sustainability.

Educate Customers

Part and parcel of reducing waste within your organization is not to collect as much, even though that is literally your business. Talk to your customers about the importance of recycling, the efforts you are making, and how they, too, can make smarter decisions about what they consume, how to separate their waste, and what they can do to help. Even if one person helps you cut down on collections by reducing the waste you collect from them or implements more effective recycling, you're making a start. Send out leaflets to customers, have help guides on websites, promote your waste reduction efforts, and educate people as much as possible so they can cut the waste they send your way so you can cut waste within how you operate, too.

Set Goals

Setting goals is a powerful way to revamp your operations and strive for a more efficient model. Whether it's increasing recycling or investing in new technology, these goals can motivate you to make the necessary changes.

You might want to cut down your truck emissions by 20% in a set period. This means you can look into ways that your drivers will be on the road less and can compact their routes to be more efficient while improving the services provided. It might be that you aim to introduce increased recycling capabilities, cut spending, or improve employee retention to reduce wasteful practices due to constantly bringing new people on board. Take a look at what you're doing now in relation to the areas you want to make improvements. From here, you can identify ways in which you can become better and streamline processes.

Take it one thing at a time. Look at one area, identify issues, and then work to resolve them. Then move on to something else. The more changes you try to make at once, the harder it will be to change effectively, and you might just end up making things much worse than when you started.

Explore Opportunities

The global waste industry, like most other sectors, is constantly changing and evolving. Understanding the latest technologies being introduced and the changes making waves within waste management can allow you to implement new changes and take advantage of new opportunities. Doing so requires you to be proactive in how you operate your company and make required changes for the better.

Start making changes at all local levels, focusing on what you have currently, what resources you have locally, and what areas you serve. From here, you can then branch out and look at national and international changes and methodologies and slowly integrate them into how you work to help you keep growing and expanding while maintaining an ethos of reducing waste in all aspects of your company and facilitating beneficial improvement for the company, your customers, and the environment too.

Despite working in waste management, companies in this sector can also experience wasteful practices and habits that can cost them money, time, and reputation. Invoking change can allow you to improve standards, streamline processes, and make valuable changes in all areas of the business.