Greening……. ………. Your Bottom Line Waste Reducton Analysis And Your Profit Margin

Things To Remember Recycling doesn’t necessarily cost more. In fact, many companies can save money by focusing on waste minimization. Look at the overall financial picture.

Where Do I Start? It is essential that your company has upper management buy-in with an environmental program in order to make it successful. Select your environmental key players to guide the program.

View Waste From A Different Angle First of all, REMEMBER, that many materials considered “waste” are really misplaced, tradable commodities with value. Once you begin to view discarded resources in this light, you’ll never see them as “trash”, “garbage”, “rubbish” or “waste” again.

Develop an Environmental Policy Create a written policy with which your company can direct environmental management. Include elements of recycling, waste reduction and continual improvement in your company environmental policy.

Perform A Waste Analysis Look at your waste disposal bills to determine which waste containers are being hauled and when. Compare bills over several months to see if there are any seasonal disposal patterns.

The Walkthrough Visual analysis is the best method for locating any excessive commodity loss Tour your facility and note any materials in waste cans and dumpsters. Take notes. These will be used in formulating your waste reduction plan.

Compile Data Develop a spreadsheet showing wastes and volumes or weights of those wastes. Calculate costs for disposal of those waste materials

Dumpster Spreadsheets Create a spreadsheet for each dumpster or compactor, showing dumping schedule, charges per dumpster and tonnage hauled. This will give you a baseline upon which you can base your waste reduction study.

Typical 8-cubic yard Spreadsheet

Looking For Waste In All The Right Places Offices and Recordkeeping Purchasing Shipping and Receiving Storage, Warehousing and Inventory Service Department Production Areas Maintenance and Engineering Janitorial Break Rooms and Cafeteria Restrooms Dumpsters, Compactors and Disposal Areas

Purchasing Department Is your company’s purchasing department practicing “Just In Time” purchasing procedures? Are they practicing “Environmentally Preferable Purchasing”? Are they using electronic documents for communication instead of paper documents? Are there recycling bins in your purchasing department and are they being used?

Offices and Recordkeeping Are your offices primarily using electronic documents? Is paper being recycled in your offices and work areas? Does your company buy recycled content supplies? Does your company purchase recycled toner and printer cartridges? Do your personnel strive to “double side” printed documents? Is equipment being purchased or leased? Is obsolete equipment being recycled or refurbished?

Shipping and Receiving Is your company’s shipping department using wooden pallets, plastic pallets, slip sheets, stretch and shrink wraps, rubber bands, etc……? Is merchandise rejected due to handling damage? Are corrugated cardboard, film, paper, Styrofoam peanuts, and other forms of dunnage reused or recycled? Are materials and merchandise being shipped in or out using returnable totes? Are chemicals purchased in totes or in bulk?

Service Department Are your customers encouraged to recycle commodities manufactured by your company? Are employees encouraged to recycle at home as well as at their workplace? Are your customers encouraged to repair, rather than to replace broken equipment? Are your customers aware that you have an Environmental Sustainability program?

Storage, Warehousing & Inventory Are items in inventory becoming obsolete or out of date due to long-term storage? Have materials in inventory been damage by careless handling? Does your company use electronic inventory tracking?

Production Areas Do you periodically check waste receptacles and note the types and quantities of materials that are discarded? Have you calculated reasonable scrap rates for production? Do you discuss material scrap with production employees to determine ways the scrap rate can be reduced? Take note of manufacturing processes and determine the viability of changing manufacturing processes in order to reduce waste.

More Production Area Issues Is there a waste volume differential from shift to shift and if so, why? Is more raw material being used in one shift as opposed to the other shifts? Has your company tried to use standardized material handling practices in order to reduce scrapping raw materials and finished products? How is housekeeping in the production area? A clean work environment can reduce waste.

Maintenance Areas Is the maintenance area using re-built parts for repair? Does maintenance recycle petroleum products such as motor oil? Does maintenance recycle metals and other commodities? Does maintenance periodically check for compressed air, freon and fluid leaks?

Restrooms Are the restrooms in you facility fitted with occupancy sensors to shut off lights when they are not needed? Are the restrooms fitted with low-flow toilets, sink aerators and low-flow showerheads? Are bathroom soaps, tissues and deodorizers the most environmentally safe products available? Do restrooms have signs up reminding employees to turn off water and lights when not in use?

Break Room and Cafeteria Are recycling containers available to break room and cafeteria users? Are there signs in the cafeteria and break rooms encouraging environmental stewardship? Is surplus food being donated to homeless shelters or food banks? Are food and paper scraps collected and composted?

Janitorial Has your company’s janitorial staff been trained to locate and recover wasted commodities from the trash? Does janitorial staff use non-toxic or less-toxic cleaning methods and solvents? Does janitorial staff maximize use of tissues, soaps and related materials?

Disposal Areas Execute a “dumpster dive” to perform a waste stream audit of materials disposed. This is where you will find the “smoking gun”. The audit may be extensive or cursory, depending on the situation. Determine how often dumpsters and compactors are pulled and place them on a per-call basis. Locate markets for commodities that are being wasted.

Employee Education Meet with personnel and management to assure that employees will be educated to understand the importance of good environmental stewardship. Have management assemble a working environmental team and assign one person as team leader. Have the team meet periodically to develop policy and methods to attain waste reduction. Select lead operators to be educators to employees and disseminate environmental directives.

Employee Incentives Remember the “fly and vinegar” adage. Employees are more likely to respond to management policy in a positive way if they are rewarded in some fashion. Examples may include : 1. Income from the sale of recyclables may be contributed to an employee fund. 2. Savings from environmental program could be spent on an employee picnic or movie night. 3. Management could offer prizes to an employee deemed to be a good environmentalist. 4. Free premiums…….

Markets For Commodities The NC Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance provides an online Directory of Markets For Recyclable Materials. The markets directory lists numerous companies that take various commodities for recycling

Markets Directory

Waste Exchanges There are numerous waste exchanges available online. North Carolina’s waste exchange service is free and can be located at:

Waste Exchange

Environmental Specialist NC DPPEA Phone: (919)