Do you have this feeling that your hauler is charging you too much for waste disposal?
Are you paying outrageous bills on waste disposal yet your trash generation is not high enough to employ the expensive services you are employing?
Do not ignore your instincts – you are probably paying for services you do not need.
Most waste disposing service providers add overage fees to their customers’ bills yet their trash generated does not even match the expensive level of services they sign up for. If you are not careful, you could continue paying excess in overage charges for services not rendered as required for the amount of waste your business generates.
If you take a deep look at a possible situation such as this you will probably find that your waste hauler may not be picking your trash as frequently as required so that you end up having an overflow and pay an overage charge! The worst part – they will give you zero documentation to support these charges.
In this article, we will discuss what an overage charge is and how to overcome it. We will also explore how you can reduce your waste management costs.
This post will cover the following topics:
- What is an Overage Charge?
- How to Avoid an Overage Charge On Your Company’s Waste Disposing Bill
- Proven Ways to Reduce Your Waste Management Costs
- Consulting Waste Control To Assess Your Waste Bills
What is an Overage Charge
An overage charge or an overflow charge is the extra fee you have to pay your waste disposing service provider each time your trash overflows from your dumpster or trash bins.
Waste disposing or waste management service providers normally charge their customers based on the volume of trash generated and the frequency of waste collection. However, you might pay an overage charge if you do not meet certain waste management regulations, as defined by IVGID.
These guidelines and regulations stipulate that your trash must fit the provided dumpsters and recycling containers, and the lids must close completely to prevent littering the environment and minimize wildlife encounters.
Failure to adhere to these rules means you have to pay an overage charge whenever your trash overfills the provided carts or the containers.
Regrettably, a few waste haulers are not as trustworthy or ethical as they should be. You may encounter an overage charge on your waste bill even without proper documentation supporting the charge from your waste hauler.
Some haulers may even deliberately reduce the number of times they pick your trash leaving you with no option and overflowing your waste containers. Eventually, your waste bills will continue mounting up.
Five Ways to Avoid an Overage Charge On Your Company’s Waste Management or Waste Disposing Bill
The logic behind an overage charge is noble since it helps keep the environment safer by preventing people from overflowing their trash cans. However, how this charge is levied has become subject to abuse in recent years with many waste haulers erroneously or deliberately charging their customers with it.
In this section, we shall discuss a few tips and suggestions on how you can avoid paying unnecessary high overage charges on your company’s waste disposing bill.
Reduce and recycle your waste
The safest way to avoid an overage charge is to reduce your waste. You should follow the waste hierarchy to minimize the amount of refuse your business generates. You should also consider recycling reusable materials from your waste to bring down the amount of waste your hauler has to pick up.
Make sure that the service level you are using and the collection frequency matches your trash
One of the main reasons which may be causing you to experience an overflow of trash and having to pay overage charges is the possibility that you may be using a service plan that is not appropriate for you and the frequency of collection of waste is not sufficient. Your waste hauler should be collecting your trash frequently and on a regular basis, at least 4-5 times a week if you are someone who has to deal with large volumes of waste.
Renting or purchasing a bigger trash container
Renting a large dumpster or waste container can go a long way to help prevent overflows. However, you must be ready to pay more fees since waste haulers normally charge their clients based on the volume of trash disposed of which is often related to the size of the trash container.
Making sure your location is obstruction-free for trash collection
One of the rules and regulations about the waste collection is that your location must be obstruction-free. Your waste hauler should be able to access your dumpster easily during pick-up or you may have to pay an overage charge for a failed delivery.
Enlisting an expert to assess your waste bill
You should consult waste and cost reduction experts to help assess your bill and unearth any hidden costs and erroneous overage charges that are possibly being levied on you.
Proven Ways to Reduce Your Waste Management Costs and Growing the overall Performance of your Business
If you notice that your waste and recycling bills are mounting higher every month, yet your trash generation is more or less constant, then your hauler is probably charging you for services you do not need. You could be unnecessarily paying too much for waste disposal and missing opportunities to go green and save money.
Understanding your bills and knowing exactly what you are paying for can help reduce your waste management costs. Here are other proven ways through which you can reduce your waste management costs.
Establish The True Cost of Disposing your Waste and Identify Possible excess charge causing Loopholes
Start by establishing the true cost of disposing of your waste to understand how much you should be spending on disposal. This will also help you to identify possible excess charges causing loopholes that your waste provider is using to overcharge you for disposal.
Calculating the true cost of waste starts as soon as you purchase materials that will turn into waste after its use. You should know how much it should cost to dispose of each item at the end of its use.
This is a troublesome and time-consuming process and you could use the services of a company like Waste Control Inc to conduct an audit and gather the necessary data required to help reduce your waste management bills and increase your profitability.
Determine The Main Source of Your Waste in Your Local Business
The next step is to determine the main source of your waste. Ask yourself, “which department of my business produces the most waste?”
Once again in this situation, you will need to hire experts to audit your facility, but this depends on the size of your business. If you have a small business, you can conduct the audit yourself to review and eliminate unnecessary waste generation.
For instance, if your operations involve a lot of paperwork, you could switch to paperless processes to reduce the amount of waste generated from disposing of paper.
Being able to track your current waste generation levels can help you embrace a more efficient and affordable waste management method, enhance sustainability, reduce your carbon footprint, and conserve resources.
Create a Waste Management Plan and Watch Your Savings Grow
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Once you determine the main factors contributing towards the bulk of your waste generation, you should follow it by creating a plan to manage these factors. A suitable and relevant waste management plan comes in handy to lower disposal costs and improve efficiency. It acts as a guide to help your staff to know how to reduce and manage waste better than before.
To set up the right plan, you need to conduct a waste generation assessment by:
- Examining past records about your company’s waste generation
- Exploring your facility to identify avoidable waste-producing activities
- Sorting, measuring, and calculating your company’s total waste
Your plan should focus on preventing waste generation in the first place before evaluating what you cannot prevent. Moreover, you should set clear and achievable goals to help you identify the right waste management solution or plan for your business.
Reduce Your Waste Generation and Notice the Difference
As mentioned before, your priority should be to prevent waste generation above everything else. However, since this is something that is impossible in most cases, you can only opt to reduce your waste generation.
Once you finish identifying the types and amounts of waste your business generates, you can come up with viable ways to reduce your refuse volume generation. This has a positive ripple effect on your business operations and the overall performance of your Business.
Minimizing waste reduces the number of waste containers you need, creates more space for storage, and ultimately brings down your disposal costs.
Some of the most efficient ways to reduce waste include:
- Setting up a green team
- Avoiding easily perishables and buying durable items
- Avoiding the purchase of over-packaged goods
- Going paperless
- Composting and recycling
You can also follow the three R’s of waste minimization – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Recycle Waste Where Possible and Move Toward Environmental Sustainability
Recycling is the next big thing as far as environmental sustainability is concerned. If you want to reduce your waste management costs, you should take advantage of what recycling processes have to offer.
Recycling is a process or an approach that involves converting your used products and materials that you would normally discard, into reusable and useful materials. This implies that you will not have to rely on obtaining or purchasing virgin raw materials all the time which contributes to help save the environment and also help reduce your costs.
If you didn’t comprehend this possibility already, you can generate revenue by recycling your waste besides reducing your disposal costs as well. Your business can also enjoy financial gains and incentives from state-sponsored recycling programs.
Determine how much of the total amount of waste that is generated by your business is recyclable and contact your local EPA office to explore available recycling programs
Determine the Best Method of Waste Disposal for More Savings
You can reduce your waste management costs and avoid an overage charge if you are able to determine the most efficient and cost-saving disposal method or plan in line with your needs. However, choosing the best waste disposal method depends on several factors, including:
- Type of waste
- Location of the disposal site
- Your hauler’s and your company’s waste management policies
- Federal and state regulations
Some of the most popular and most efficient disposal methods include:
- Solidification
- Compacting
- Recycling
- Landfill transfer
Talking to a waste management expert can help you decide on the best waste disposal method for your needs so that you can improve efficiency and save on costs.
Reduce the Frequency of Waste Collection
How many times a week should your business waste be picked up?
Well, many business owners do not know this, but the more times your trash is picked in a week the more you have to pay.
Most haulers charge on a quarterly basis but they normally calculate your bills depending on the volume of trash and frequency of waste collection. By reducing your waste generation, you can also reduce the number of times you have to arrange the collection of your trash.
Ultimately, you will notice a significant decrease in your waste management bills. Your waste disposal service provider will be left with no excuses to overcharge for waste management.
Turn Biodegradable Waste into Power
Did you know that you can turn your biodegradable waste into a natural source of energy to power your business?
Waste-to-energy is the process of converting organic trash into energy through incineration or by use of a bio-processor. With more and more businesses turning to clean and renewable energy, it is high time you consider turning your waste materials into the power.
Not only that! Turning waste into valuable power reduces the volume of trash going to our landfills.
So, you’ll be killing two birds with one stone. First, your business will gain from cleaner energy and second, help conserve the environment. You will also notice a significant reduction in your waste management bills.
Negotiate with Your Hauler for an Affordable Contract
Another simple but effective way to avoid overage charges and reduce your waste management costs is by renegotiating for a lower-priced contract with your Hauler. However, first will need to establish whether the service levels you are currently using are sufficient to tackle your trash generation.
Accurately knowing the level of waste disposing service you require, can help reduce your waste management bills. Alternatively, you can negotiate and team up with your neighbors that have similar waste and opt to use the same hauler and benefit from economies of scale.
Switch to a Cheaper Waste Disposing Service Provider as a Last Resort
If your waste disposing service provider is not willing to negotiate a lower-priced contract based on your trash generation, then you should consider looking for another service provider who will accept a lower-priced contract.
Finding the ideal waste management service can be time-consuming and tedious. However, by consulting a company like Waste Control Inc, you can discover the right match quickly so that you may focus your time and energy on running your business uninterrupted.
Consult Waste Control Inc To Assess and Adjust Your Waste Bills
Failure to understand your waste and recycling bills could cost you and impact your overall business performance negatively. You might be paying for services that do not match your waste generation or are simply unnecessary and that is why there could be an overage charge on your bills.
The main purpose of Waste Control Inc is to help businesses like yours to:
- Understand your waste management bills
- Save money on waste management costs
- Reduce administrative costs related to waste management
- Manage service expenses related to waste disposing
We can help you to assess your bills and unearth hidden costs and erroneous or unethical overage charges being levied on you to ensure that you are only paying what you should be paying for the waste disposing services.
So, what are you waiting for? Consult Waste Control Inc, the waste management and cost-cutting experts, today!