Inefficient waste management has become a hot topic of concern for businesses, in part due to the mounting pressures from customers around sustainability. It’s not only financial and regulatory burdens, but commercial incentives, meaning there’s both a carrot and a stick!
This guide looks at actionable frameworks and actions to take to boost recycling efficacy and curtail disposal expenditures.
Top 5 Ways Of Optimising Waste Management in the Workplace
1. Clear Signage and Eco-designed Bins
Effective waste segregation at source is your bread and butter, but it’s not always something we get right. It begins with visual queues that are totally unequivocal, and this means that the design and deployment of on-site labels and bins are at the crux of your recycling efficacy.
Best practices are to use standardized colour-coding, which are mostly intuitive by now, like green for organics, blue for mixed recyclables and black or grey for general waste. But, it’s not intuitive to everybody, because not only do workers from other nationalities have different customs, even councils within the UK do!
So, concise and universally understood iconography and minimal text are needed. Signage should be positioned directly at eye-level on (or immediately above) receptacles.
They need to remain visible too, and this means they must be manufactured from durable yet eco-friendly materials to withstand workplace conditions. Eco-friendly materials for the signage is a sign in and of itself, telling your workers that you’re serious about this as a workplace culture.
Many companies offering dedicated solutions will focus on eco-friendly materials and take care of the font concerns for you. Generally, centralised waste stations often outperform individual desk-side bins in terms of promoting correct sorting.
Waste generation patterns should also be understood internally, though, and this can differ from company to company. “Right-sizing” bins according to the volume and type of waste generated in specific zones helps keep down liner usage (if using them) and optimises collection frequencies.
2. Streamlining Processes for Maximum Impact
Physical infrastructure is important, but so to is streamlining your processes. This begins with a comprehensive waste audit, as touched on earlier, to quantify current waste streams and identify dominant material types.
Optimisation often begins with data collection, and following this audit will lead to targeted interventions and measuring future improvements.
Collection schedules and explicit role definitions should be established to help the consistent and correct handling of segregated materials. Partnerships with waste management contractors can help, particularly for e-waste and other tricky materials.
3. Creating a Culture of Sustainability
Optimization cannot just be top-down, as it relies on the behaviour of every worker. Firstly, the values (both governance but also commercial) need to be clearly communicated, and from there, training and regular reminders of waste management need to be made routine.
An effective strategy is to communicate the data-driven differences you have made so far, such as in the employee newsletter, to highlight that each worker has made a difference.
If it’s struggling to fully catch on, it’s possible to introduce some gamification, in which an inter-departmental rivalry can brew to see who can achieve high diversion rates.
4. The RSE Benefits
Optimized waste management programs will yield Responsible Business Conduct (RSE) advantages.
Yes, benefits are financial, like reducing landfill fees, but a clearly communicated commitment to minimising environmental impact can lead to corporate social responsibility credentials.
This used to be a box-ticking exercise, particularly for regulators, but has become important for all stakeholders involved, from investors and clients to customers and future partners.
It’s a selling point, and it’s a way to differentiate your company’s value in a proactive way. Compliance shouldn’t just be met, but surpassed, as to future-proof the inevitable changes and remain compliant.
5. Success in Action
A good example of impactful waste management optimization is within the financial service firms occupying several floors within a single NYC building.
Despite a traditional dual-bin system (general waste and mixed recyclables) at each and every workstation, a waste audit showed that 30% of the content in their general waste bins was, in fact, perfectly recyclable material.
The intervention was all about removing individual desk bins and strategically implementing centralised bins that were clearly labelled, with multi-stream recycling stations on each floor. Trash, paper, and mixed containers (bottles/cans) were installed.
This structural change was supported by targeted training (not just cleaning staff but all employees), and the results were compelling.
The proportion of recyclable materials incorrectly discarded plummeted from 30% to just 7%, meaning a 75% reduction in recyclables going to landfill. While the training would have helped, having a centralised system clearly played a part too, as it was no longer in their private desk space.
Your Roadmap to a Greener Workplace
Optimising your waste management system starts with clear signage and eco-designed receptacles.
However, a broader change can help, such as centralising the placement of the bins. However, without training and communicating these values, results will be hindered as sustainability efforts must be constantly considered and in a public space.
