What Is A Waste Audit?
A waste audit is a method of estimating the total amount of waste discarded by a company, the cost to dispose of it, the amounts of waste that can be recycled or reused or prevented to determine if one has the correct level of hauling service.
A waste audit is not complicated but rather a simple and straightforward way to visually estimate what goes into the dumpster? A waste audit done before and after implementing a waste reduction and recycling program, gives you the means to document and monitor efforts.
How To Do The Audit
The following sheets provide a do-it-yourself method for learning about your company’s waste. Follow the instructions included with each worksheet in numerical order. Use the Calculation Chart to estimate weights.
First examine your waste disposal bills (or lease agreement) to determine how much you pay for disposal and the quantity you are billed for. Then decide which containers (dumpsters, waste baskets, etc.) you are going to look at to determine what your company discards.
The next step is to determine what items can be recycled, what items can be reused and ways to reduce the use of certain materials and supplies. Waste prevention is another means to cut disposal costs. Call your local community to get a list of materials that can be recycled.
Once the weights and volumes of the recyclable materials is calculated and then compared with the weight and volume of trash disposed, we can move toward setting up a recycling program and eventually a smaller dumpster and a recycling bin.
Setting up a Recycling Program is another do-it-yourself instruction program then can be accomplished after the do-it-yourself Waste Audit has been completed.
Waste Reduction ideas are listed in the 3Rs category of this site.