Waste Management Tips For Facility Managers
Managing a facility means managing everything that comes out of that facility. Unfortunately, waste management can create some significant challenges -- especially in terms of sustainability. Putting a solid, robust plan in place will cost some money up front, but can more than pay for itself over time. Here are six tips for getting your Long Island facility's waste management plan up and running:
1. Perform a waste audit.
The first step to setting up any kind of solution -- whether it's waste management, energy efficiency, or anything else -- is an audit. This will help you determine how much waste each area of your facility produces, and what kind of waste that is. An office area, for example, is most likely to produce a lot of paper and cardboard. A cafeteria, on the other hand, will mostly be food and plastic waste. Without a thorough waste audit, you have no way of knowing what your waste management needs really are.
2. Avoid a "one size fits all" solution.
You could set up a bunch of generic bins with black bags, but then all of your glass, aluminum, paper, and food waste will end up going to the same place. You'll either have to pay to have all of that hauled away to a landfill, or your employees will have to take the time to separate it by hand for recycling or composting. A waste audit can tell you what waste comes from where, so you can strategically place specific receptacles for regular trash, paper recycling, and so forth.
3. Re-read your sanitation contract.
After performing a waste audit, take a look at your waste pickup contract. Does it meet your needs? Are you paying for a service you aren't using, or is there another way you could help reduce your costs? If you have a large dumpster that's only half full every time the sanitation workers come by to empty it, it's worth downsizing. If your dumpster is always overflowing and attracting insects and rodents, size up. In some cases, the cost of recycling may be cheaper than the cost of emptying a big dumpster every week. In that situation, it pays to separate recycling from garbage. Your facility will operate more sustainably and save money at the same time.
4. Determine what you can use in-house.
One person's waste is another person's treasure. Just because you're ready to throw something away doesn't mean that it can't be given new life elsewhere. Stacks of old single-sided printouts can be cut in half and used as notepads, extending their use before they need to be recycled. Shipping boxes may be used for storage. If your facility can handle composting, you can turn food scraps into free fertilizer for landscaping. Look at the trash generated by your operation, and see what can be repurposed in-house before being recycled or discarded.
5. Set goals, and incentivize meeting them.
It's not enough to put a waste management program in place and then walk away. You have to keep tabs on things. Your facility's waste generation is in constant flux. The ultimate goal should be to reduce (or even eliminate) how much trash goes to a landfill. Measure your facility's garbage and recycling output, and set goals to reduce your garbage. Create incentives for employees or tenants to help reduce trash output in their specific departments and come up with innovative ideas to help the facility meet its goals.
6. Make it as easy as possible for people to get right.
The best waste management program in the world won't work if people won't comply. Make it easy for employees and guests to do the right thing. Clearly mark bins with ADA-compliant signage, graphics, and color-coding. Place them in spots that are intuitive and convenient to users. Most people's first priority is getting rid of their trash. If a recycling bin is too far away, or not clearly labeled, they're much more likely to use a regular garbage bin. If a garbage bin isn't in plain sight, they may resort to using a planter, or just leaving trash behind. Fun fact: Walt Disney determined where to put the trash cans in Disney World by eating a hotdog. He ate it while walking and placed a trash can where he finished. That ensured that no guest would ever be too far away from a waste bin. You don't need to scarf hotdog after hotdog to figure out where to put your bins, but it helps to think about waste management from the user's perspective. Waste management isn't glamorous, but it's crucial. Without a thorough waste audit, you have no way of knowing your facility's needs. Once you can see what kind of waste you're creating, and how much, you can double-check your disposal contract, set up strategies for recycling and composting, and begin meeting sustainability goals.
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