Unlocking-The-Potential-of-Your-Waste-Commodities_-How-Waste-Control-Can-Get-You-2X-Better-Value-for-your-Recyclable-Materials

Unlocking The Potential of Your Waste Commodities: How Waste Control Can Get You 2X Better Value for your Recyclable Materials

In Commercial waste disposal service, Recycling, Reduce Waste Costs, Waste Management by David FahrionLeave a Comment

Your company’s waste can have a great impact on your bottom line. For any growing business, the primary focus is of course increasing their revenue and being profitable. While you work tirelessly on this front, cutting costs and sustainability are important pursuits too. That’s where waste and recyclable commodities come in.

Recycling costs can be restrictive and often drain your resources with both cost and logistics involvement needed. Using haulers and local waste services will often lead to suboptimal results. Most of the waste will end up in landfills and the recycling rate will be quite low.

There are solutions to this problem. Waste Control has been working with many leading organizations to manage their waste stream. There may be many waste commodities that are being produced as by-products in your business, and you can convert these into income which can help your bottom line.

Here’s how waste commodities can be precious and how to get 2x better value for these materials.

What is a Waste Commodity that is Recyclable?

Waste commodities are by-products that constitute waste in your manufacturing process but there are markets where they are important raw materials. Solid waste that comes out of manufacturing units is often not sorted or cleaned properly and is bundled together as waste.

But a good waste management process will ensure that the waste that is being produced is identified and sorted. This can then be baled together and shipped to buyers for further use. Common waste commodities include

  • Corrugated cardboard boxes (OCC),
  • LDPE,
  • HDPE,
  • Organics,
  • Paper,
  • and more.

Currently, waste reaches material recovery facilities (MRF) which do the function of sorting the waste into recyclable materials. But these facilities find it hard to deal with waste in bulk and there is also the issue of efficiency.

Why are Waste Commodity Recyclables Important?

The circular economy is a growing concept given the focus on sustainability. Every business is conscious of its carbon footprints and how sustainable they are. Waste stream management is one of the key aspects of this.

Waste recycling is central to the sustainability movement. Municipal solid waste is in most places going through processes to ensure that recyclable materials are recovered and used. Similarly, industrial waste also needs to be segregated and reused. Recycled content is popular and you can find buyers for these too.

Waste commodities can be used by the recycling industry to create other materials from it and these buyers can pay you above the market prices. The income will help you cover the recycling expenses and you can reduce the environmental impact of your business.

The pandemic has had a real impact on the commodities market. Supply chains across the world are feeling the pressure, and cutting costs is a priority. Better management of your waste can give you a real edge here.

How to Use Waste Commodities

Waste Control’s approach to waste commodities has evolved with a significant amount of experience and intimate knowledge of the recycling markets globally. We not just help your organization improve your waste process, we also help you get your waste converted into money. Here’s how our approach works.

Identify Waste Commodities

The first step in the process is looking at your manufacturing process in detail and identifying the significant waste commodities that can enter the recycling system. It is easy to overlook some waste products or to not consider them significant but could be of great value.

Knowing the commodities market comes in handy at this stage. It helps identify the various materials and also sense which of the materials could be a valuable commodity and which ones are not.

Planning for Each Waste Material

Identifying the various materials and also finding ways to sort them into the various buckets is important. It is also important to figure out what is to be done with each waste commodity. Some of the waste products can be handled locally. Say organics can go to a local composting facility and turn into something useful. Some of the other materials could be in smaller quantities and hence can be sent to a local recycling facility.

Having a plan for each waste material will allow you to quickly sort and dispose of the materials. This will also allow us to reuse or recycle as much of the material as possible and control the amount that ends up in landfills.

Waste Control works with you to look at your process in detail and make a plan for each waste product that is coming out of your process.

Sorting and Baling the Waste Commodities

If these materials have to be sold in the commodities markets, it needs to go through some processes. Properly sorting the waste materials is important. Commodity prices vary by quality and good quality waste commodities naturally command a higher price.

Baling is a critical part of the whole process. Baling allows you to tightly pack the waste commodities. This makes it a compact size making it easier to transport at a lower overall cost. Since some of these waste commodities may be shipped to other nations, baling is an important step to ensure easier logistics.

Educating Your Staff

Restructuring your waste management process is not just a technical process. It is ultimately the people who are working on the factory floor that influences actual results. They are a very important stakeholder in the process.

You should spend time educating the employees on your recycling programs and their importance. Training them to sort waste efficiently and adhere to the overall waste management process is vital.

Waste control works closely with our clients to make sure that everyone knows the role they are playing and how to make sure that the waste stream can be managed as best as possible.

Finding Buyers and Shipping

The crux of the process lies here. The waste you produce needs to find its way to the recycling facilities or industries that are using it to produce other materials. Some resellers will buy these commodities from you and resell them to buyers from other geographies.

Countries like China, India, Mexico, and Vietnam are ideal destinations. There are buyers there who are looking for cheaper raw materials and will be willing to pay premium rates for waste commodities.

Waste control has a large network of resellers and industrial setups to tap into which allows us to find buyers for most of the common waste commodities. The global reach gives us more options to find an ideal buyer and command a better price for your commodities.

Tracking and Measuring the Process

Finally, nothing ever works without a process to measure and track results over time. Set clear goals when you are starting the process. You should also chart out some key metrics and milestones that you want to achieve with target dates too.

Once this is in place, keep track of where your waste commodities are going and how much value is being generated from the process. Measuring and keeping track allows you to course-correct and also understand the impact you are making.

Conclusion

Managing your waste is quite a challenge for any business. It is often possible that you are not generating enough value from your waste if you do not have a proper recycling strategy in place for your business. We are all chasing sustainability goals in one form or another, and producing the least amount of waste as possible is important for any manufacturing business.

Unlocking the power of waste commodities will help you find more value in your waste. Waste commodities have a huge market. Sorting your waste products properly and finding the right buyers for them are key in the overall process.

Recycled commodities also have a huge market as consumers today are also becoming more conscious of the origin of the products they use. Leveraging your waste commodities helps you save your recycling costs as well as reduce the environmental impact.

Waste Control has helped many growing organizations inch closer to their goal of being zero waste. Our comprehensive approach looks at your overall waste stream and finds ways to cut your recycling costs in half. Talk to us to find out how.