No small business owner or general manager wants their profits to disappear due to environmental challenges. Waste management is just one of many culprits that can impact your bottom line.
Resources are wasted when your control and disposal methods are inefficient and non-compliant. The operation suffers due to the lost time, effort, and money that could have been reinvested in the company to spur increased growth. But every problem has a solution.
With a well-crafted, strategic shift in waste management, small manufacturing outfits can reduce their non-compliance risk and support a thriving bottom line. This post will explore three strategies to convert your current waste and hazardous waste management efforts from burdensome to money-saving:
- Classifying Your Waste Streams for Insight
- Embracing Smart Segregation to Streamline and Save
- Leveraging Expertise for Effective Waste Management Solutions
Classifying Your Waste Streams for Insight
Hidden opportunities for heightened environmental responsibility and cost reductions abound. How do you find them? Small enterprises should start the journey with a comprehensive waste audit.
Such an assessment will prompt you to identify and categorize all the waste generated in the production process. The knowledge garnered by the exercise will enable the operation to determine sound waste management solutions to boost efficiency and save money.
For example, suppose an electronics manufacturer uncovered during a waste audit that a substantial portion of their discarded materials was due to defective circuit boards and electronic components. Armed with this specific information, the enterprise can now take the prudent step of exploring suitable e-waste recycling alternatives.
Without the assessment, the business may have missed the opportunity to responsibly dispose of these items and potentially recover some of the material costs from the precious metals and rare earth elements contained in the waste.
Actionable Waste Audit Tips
Assign a team member with solid knowledge of your process to walk through your entire process. Begin with raw materials receiving and move along through the finished products. At every step, note all the materials used and byproducts created. Furthermore, sites can utilize the same process to evaluate support operations like maintenance, warehousing, and administration.
As necessary, samples of each waste stream should be collected in clear plastic bags, and each bag should be labeled with the suspected waste type, generation location, and collection date. Doing so will aid in definitive waste identification and determination of proper disposal methods.
Embracing Smart Segregation to Streamline and Save
Improper waste disposal leads to wasted cash. As such, savvy small manufacturers devise and implement well-defined, value-added waste segregation systems. Most schemes employ color-coded, labeled bins for each waste category.
It almost sounds too simple. Yet, you shouldn’t let simplicity diminish the importance of proper segregation. Facilities that execute such a schema often experience the following:
• Cost Savings – Mixed waste streams increase disposal costs. Operations that receive waste may reject loads deemed contaminated or not meeting disposal specifications, translating to added expenses for you. Segregation ensures each waste goes where it needs to go. It also allows companies to uncover more cost-effective disposal options per waste type.
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