Waste management
Step three - Expert
Changing waste culture
Engaging employees and stakeholders is key to ensuring your waste reduction efforts are sustained over time.
Internal Engagement
- Incentivise waste reduction targets and reward staff for taking sustainable actions.
- Make it easy to make the ‘right’ decision by reviewing bin placement, adding signage and developing waste reduction guides.
- Raise awareness about your goals for waste reduction by providing training workshops or highlighting key metrics.
External Engagement
- Work with your suppliers to request more sustainable packaging alternatives, explore packaging take-back schemes and minimise unnecessary packaging items.
- Choose materials that provide longer life cycles and lower waste impacts, and develop your products or services to include modular, serviceable and repairable elements.
- Promote your waste reduction initiatives and share progress with your customers and wider stakeholders – leading by example and sharing best practice ideas is key.
Tracking & Measuring Waste Reduction
Continuing to measure and review your waste levels will help to keep you on track with your goals. This information can also feed into your Carbon Footprint calculations. You can track your waste reduction by:
- Conducting periodic waste assessments and tracking trends.
- Use your waste carrier reports, which many commercial waste carriers now provide.
- Look at the government GHG Conversion Factors to link your waste reduction to carbon emission savings.
Sharing your Achievements
Waste isn’t usually something that many people want to talk about. However, raising awareness of how small and consistent changes to your waste management approach can have a big impact, is worth shouting about.
- Develop case studies and social media updates – tell your customers about your waste reduction plans, approach and achievements.
- Internal updates – keep your teams informed and motivated through regular updates at meetings or via newsletters.
- Collaborate with others – link up and share best practice ideas and be open to learning from others.
Identify Circular Opportunities
What may be a waste product or material for you could easily be given a new lease of life by someone else. Look for opportunities to collaborate with others to donate items you’d consider to be waste:
- Office furniture can be recycled or donated to others.
- Broken electronic equipment could be repaired to extend it’s life, or recycled at an appropriate facility.
- Packaging materials can be reused for protecting other goods, or repurposed into other materials through donation or recycling.
Embedding waste reduction strategies into your business, you can cut costs, reduce your environmental impact and positively contribute to a more circular economy. Small and consistent changes can make significant long-term differences in achieving your net zero goals.