As a business owner, working to reduce the amount of waste at your business probably isn’t at the top of your priorities list, but it should be nearer to the top than you might think. After all, there’s a whole range of benefits that can come from investing in better waste management. For one thing, it can help to establish your business as an eco-friendly enterprise, which can help to attract new customers. It can also help your business to save money, both by streamlining your operations and generating funds from waste materials that can be sold.
Looking for some tips on how you can reduce waste at your business? We’ve got you covered. Follow the tips we’ve outlined below, and you’ll be on your way toward being a more streamlined, efficient organization.
Audit Your Current Waste Levels
You can’t make improvements until you have a sense of where you are. By conducting a waste audit, you’ll gain insights into not only how much waste your business is producing, but where it’s being produced and how you can cut it down. It’s the first, critical step that can outline the extent of your issue.
Daily Recycling
Waste doesn’t refer to anything that your business throws away — it refers to anything that ends up in the landfill. These days, most packaging and office supplies you’ll use can be recycled, and, as such, one of the simplest ways to reduce waste is to ensure that you and your employees can easily recycle products when at work. Placing as many recycling trash cans as you can around the space will do the trick, and, of course, you’ll also need to make a plan for transporting the bags to a recycling center.
Managing End of Life Machinery
Many businesses work to recycle their everyday products but then fail to recycle their larger machinery when the equipment comes to the end of its life. In doing so, they dramatically decrease their eco-credentials, especially since the metals used to make machinery are expensive and difficult to source. When your equipment comes to the end of its life, look at getting in touch with a metal recycling company, so that as much of the metal as possible can be salvaged. They’ll usually also pay you for the metal, too, which means you can get some money for a product that you no longer need.
Think of The Entire Journey
Your business’s eco-impact extends beyond what happens in your business premises. The before and after have an impact, too. For instance, if you’re working with supplies that don’t have a good environmental track record, then much — if not all — of the good work you’ve been doing to reduce your carbon footprint will be eliminated. Similarly, the same will apply if you’re using extensive packaging that can’t be recycled to send your products. When analyzing where and how your business is wasteful, keep in mind that what happens outside of your operations will have an impact too, and make changes if necessary.
