Every business across every industry produces some waste. This is, for the most part, unavoidable. With many consumers demanding that the businesses are more environmentally conscious, it comes as no surprise that many are trying to reduce the amount of waste that they produce.
Reducing waste not only saves money on costly waste removal services, it also demonstrates industry leadership and contributes to corporate social responsibility. By reducing the carbon footprint of your business you will be also be reducing greenhouse gas emissions from your business.
So, how do you do it? Below are some of the strategies that businesses are adopting to help them to reduce the amount of waste that they produce on an annual basis.
1. Take a look around
When you have a good hard look at your supply chain and all of the processes that you have with a lens to keep an eye out for the waste you produce you might see a few opportunities right off the bat. There may be some recycling opportunities that you are not taking full advantage of, or maybe an excess of packaging is used for deliveries. Any small changes you make will have a big impact over time so start with a holistic view of your business so that you can identify big opportunities for change is a good place to start.
2. Composting
Depending on the industry that you are in you may or may not have a lot of compostable waste. Even if you don’t work in the food or related industry there may still be ways that you can divert organic waste into compost bins. Even providing employees with an option to put any food waste from their lunches into composts bins can have a big effect over the course of a year so it may be worth investigating.
If your business does produce a lot of compostable waste over the course of a year you may be able to save a great deal of money by composting your food waste. There may also be other opportunities for you to limit the amount of food that is put to waste. A review of your procedures around food ordering and potentially contacting local food banks may be a way to reduce waste and help your local community.
3. Cut down on packaging
Single-use packaging is by far and away the biggest source of waste for many businesses. Cardboard boxes, plastic food containers, packing foam and many more are just examples of additional waste that you may or may not need.
4. No more bottled water
If you have a regular order of bottled water you may want to make the switch to a filtered water process and glass cups. This may be a little more inconvenient but it will be cheaper over time and also you will be really cutting down on the amount of plastic waste that you produce.
5. Go paperless
In an office environment, far too much paper is used on a daily basis. With cloud services and the ease of sharing documents online, there is very little need for printing in the modern office. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but by setting goals and updating technology you will be amazed at how you are able to cut down on the amount of paper that is used in your office.
6. Keep track of your waste
If you are unsure of how much waste your produce, you should keep records. This will allow you to see how far you have come with all of your waste reduction efforts. Depending on your levels of waste consumption, you might need high-capacity equipment like trash compactors to handle the large volume of waste produced.
