The First Steps in a Waste Audit

Once your organization's leadership has given their blessing, you can start auditing what type of waste your organization currently disposes. Before beginning, ensure all necessary equipment and supplies are ready: personal protective equipment, weighing scale, labeling materials, large garbage bags, cleaning staff and inspection tools like SafetyCulture to document findings quickly on site.

1. Waste Types

An initial step of conducting a waste audit is identifying what kinds of trash your company produces, so as to streamline sorting processes and identify recycling opportunities more easily and create an efficient waste management system for your business. There are four distinct categories of waste: industrial, commercial, residential and medical; each type has specific guidelines regarding disposal.

Medical facilities encompass hospitals, clinical labs (academic, commercial and governmental laboratories where medical waste is generated), dental offices, clinics and similar settings. Studies reported various methods for measuring waste such as weighing or counting items as well as reviewing invoice data from treatment vendors.

Gather your green team and meet to discuss how a waste audit should be performed. Make sure all necessary tools, such as weighing scale, large plastic sheets, labels, permanent markers and waste audit worksheets, are present before beginning this task. Also ensure all team members possess PPE as they may need to physically sort through waste themselves.

2. Recycling Opportunities

Recycled materials can be reused to produce new items in numerous ways, from making Tupperware out of recycled plastics to turning scrap metal into furniture pieces. Recycling helps conserve natural resources while simultaneously cutting down emissions.

Economic security can also be increased by tapping domestic sources of materials and supporting American manufacturing, and by decreasing the need to extract precious natural resources such as wood and minerals from nature.

Recycling programs can also help businesses reduce waste disposal costs. Landfills can be expensive compared to alternatives like incineration or recycling, which provides businesses with an incentive to implement comprehensive recycling programs - saving money on disposal fees while avoiding penalties related to environmental regulations - not to mention improving company image by showing commitment and social responsibility.