Organizations of all kinds, including commercial entities, hospitals, schools, restaurants, hotels, offices and stores, generate a large proportion of solid waste. Hence, these organizations must take care to implement a sound waste disposal strategy that will have a good impact on the community and the environment. Besides benefitting their community and the environment, these organizations can also save a lot of money in the long term by reusing, reducing and recycling – the basic tenets of a robust waste management strategy. But there is more to good waste management than the good old fashioned 3 R’s.
Tracking Waste
By keeping track of the waste they generate, organizations can streamline their processes, save costs and improve their efficiency. Managers and workers must keep an eye on the waste they generate and think of how to reduce it. This will help them save money and reconsider wasteful processes that are generating too much trash.
By tracking the waste that your organization produces, you can determine whether or not your solid waste management strategy is working because according to the old management maxim, you cannot improve what you cannot measure. Monitoring, reusing and recycling waste are at the very core of your waste management strategy.
To keep track of your water consumption, energy consumption and monitor waste generation, you can rely on the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The good news is that this is a free online tool that is easily accessible and effective. You can use benchmarks from this tool to check how your organization compares. Through this platform, you can manage tools from a single building as well as an entire portfolio. The online tool will give you access to metrics that can help you to assess the efficacy of solid waste management strategy. You will accrue several benefits in the process, including more streamlined workflow and lower costs.
Programs
You can also partner in state and federal programs for reducing waste, like the Federal Green Challenge, the Food Recovery Challenge and WasteWise. One prime advantage of being part of these programs is that you will gain access to a data management system that will help you to achieve your targets. Partnering in these programs is also an excellent marketing opportunity since people from all demographics are now increasingly environmentally-conscious and want to patronize only those organizations that take the environment and social matters seriously.
Participating in such programs will present you with excellent opportunities for reaching out to your target audience and inculcating trust with them. If your organization takes care of the environment and the community, then people will be more willing to trust you and engage with you positively. People are averse to buying from companies that are not committed to reducing waste and pollution.
Top-Level Organizational Involvement
Your organization should arrange a high level meeting for handling this matter and ensuring that all objectives are fulfilled. Putting together a team with a focus on recycling and waste reduction will help you to meet and exceed the targets of your solid waste disposal strategy.
If you don’t already have a team for making your organization greener, then you can arrange one for formulating your waste management strategy. The team should suggest steps for reducing waste and they should be put in charge of monitoring waste reduction. The team should be fully empowered and must have top-level support to fulfill their objectives. You can include members from various departments to create a team with a broad skillset for greater problem-solving ability.
The team should liaise with your top management for setting long-term and short-term waste reduction objectives. The team should formulate measures that will help the entire organization to reduce its environmental impact. The team can also carry out meetings with your organization to educate them about what they can do to fulfill these objectives. There should a program for rewarding departments and personnel who are the most proactive in this regard. You can also think about offering monetary incentives and company letters of appreciation for all those who participate in these activities.
This team should make a list of key metrics, monitor them and report to the top hierarchy. They can also keep top executives informed about future planned activities.
Setting Goals
By participating in the aforementioned state and federal level programs, you will have access to tools with which you can plan your endeavor. You will have benchmarks at your disposal that you can leverage for assessing progress. Based on these benchmarks as well as the metrics at which your organization is currently operating, you can set short-term realistic goals that will gradually take you closer to your long-term objectives. It may not be realistic or even possible to expect dramatic changes to metrics within just a few weeks. However, it is definitely feasible to work your way gradually towards long-term targets. With perseverance and planning, you might get there sooner than you think.
Monitoring Strategy Effectiveness
One of the easiest ways of following progress is to track how much waste is produced and how much recycled. These will be your key metrics that can help you to judge the effectiveness of your program and problem areas that need addressing. One pleasant side effect of this effort will be cost reductions and streamlining of your daily activities.
Besides keeping track of the amount of waste, you should also follow the kind of waste that your organization is generating. If it includes food, plastic, glass and other such materials, then there may be a scope for recycling.
If for some reason, you cannot reduce the amount of waste generated, you can think of donating it if possible. For instance, restaurants can donate extra food to the vulnerable and marginalized segments of society.
The key to your waste management strategy will be to get in touch with a reliable waste management company. We can help you to improve your waste management strategy as we have for several other delighted clients.
Contact us today.