Waste stream management is of paramount importance for any industrial or commercial facility. While in the initial phases of a business, working with waste haulers and having multiple waste management service providers handle the various types of waste is sufficient. But as your business grows, it will soon become inefficient. You would need a more comprehensive waste management plan to deal with non-hazardous and hazardous waste.
Total waste stream management is a concept where one service provider takes care of the entire waste stream for the business. This includes aspects such as waste audits, waste reduction plans, achieving sustainability and recycling goals, and hauling waste from the property to the various waste disposal facilities.
The concept of total waste management has been gaining significant popularity among businesses today because of the benefits it offers. It has transformed waste management for many businesses, enabling them to reduce the amount of waste and cut waste management costs.
Waste Control has been working with a lot of businesses delivering total waste stream management solutions. Our experience has taught us some important lessons in this. This blog will look at how total waste stream management works and how your business can take advantage of this to boost efficiency and reduce costs. Read on!
How Does Total Waste Stream Management Work?
Total waste stream management is a different take on the traditional waste management process. In this process, you contract out your end-to-end waste management to a waste service company. This partner will be responsible for dealing with all the waste you produce, including organic and food waste, hazardous material, e-waste, and other types of waste. Typically, the partner has a network of recycling programs or centers that they work with, as well as other vendors who will accept the waste products.
The partner will also be involved in waste management strategy and will help you identify ways in which you can reduce waste, reduce the environmental impact by ensuring that the waste is diverted away from landfills, keep track of your total waste output and the amount of waste recycled and other such important aspects.
Total waste management, essentially, reduces your overall effort in managing your waste stream and shifts a lot of responsibility out to your waste management partner. You are relying on their experience and expertise to solve your waste management challenges. You can hence get a more streamlined and efficient solid waste management and you can manage some cost savings too!
What Advantages Does Total Waste Management Offer?
Essentially, there are a lot of benefits you get out of implementing a comprehensive waste management process in your facility. Here are some of the top benefits you can derive by implementing a total waste management system.
Save Costs
Needless to say, one of the most important benefits is the fact that you can end up saving a lot of waste management costs by consolidating all your waste management efforts to a single vendor. You can find ways to reduce the amount of waste you are dealing with, reuse some of the waste materials you are producing and overall make your process more efficient.
Some of the specific waste materials you produce may be raw materials for other industries. Your partner can help you find these opportunities within the country or outside. This means that you can even get paid for some of the waste materials you sell and this can help further reduce your overall waste management cost.
By eliminating the need to work with multiple waste haulers, you essentially have better control over what you pay. Working with haulers can be a tricky business as there are high chances of overbilling and cost overruns. You save on these by working with a single partner.
Reduce Administrative Time
Another way in which total waste stream management helps you is by reducing the administrative effort that your facility manager and other employees have to spend managing waste. What would have been a task involving the various types of vendors at various times can be done through a single point of contact now.
This saves a lot of time for your team and allows you to reduce the number of employees focused on waste management in your facility. You reduce costs further this way and you can get them on more value-added tasks.
Reduce and Reuse Waste
Without help from experts, you deal with a lot more waste than you need to. Total waste management also looks at ways to reduce the amount of waste through in-depth audits and reworking processes. Through processes such as segregation at the source and composting, some waste can be eliminated right at the source.
By eliminating waste and finding ways to reuse waste, you can more easily meet your zero-waste goals and sustainability goals which are essential parts of the EPA guidelines for waste management.
Single Point for All Types of Waste
Having a single point of contact to deal with all the different types of waste you produce can be quite a big benefit for your organization. Be it medical waste, electronic waste, demolition waste, or chemical residues, you won’t have to find different vendors to process this waste. If you produce these wastes in large quantities, you would certainly be having your go-to vendors but when it is a one-time requirement, finding a vendor can be quite a challenge. Having a single partner deal with all kinds of waste saves cost and also time for your staff.
Keep Track of All Data and Meet Sustainability Goals
Data is an essential part of any efficient waste management program. You need to understand how much waste is being produced, what percentage of it is being sent to landfills, how much is being processed at facilities such as incinerators, and what quantity of waste is being recycled. Keeping track of this data helps you get a better sense of how your business is doing on sustainability and zero waste goals.
Having one partner dealing with all kinds of waste makes it easy for you to keep track of the different types of waste and the exact quantities so that you can be compliant with regulatory standards and chase the goals you have set out to achieve.
How to Implement a Total Waste Management Program?
Implementing a total waste stream management strategy involves a few basic steps, to begin with. The first is to understand all your waste management needs and run a cost-benefit analysis to understand if you will need a total waste management service at this point or if you can still work with haulers. Getting buy-in from various stakeholders in your business is another important step. A total waste management program would involve inputs from everyone and would likely involve process changes that will affect your product life cycle as well. So you need everyone on board for a smooth implementation.
Finding the right waste management partner is perhaps the most important part of this process. You need an organization with expertise in handling the various types of waste and in the quantities you produce. They should also be experienced in dealing with pollutants such as chemicals that could leach into the groundwater supply and recyclable wastes that can be sold to vendors.
Getting quotes from multiple service providers is a good way to understand how the pricing varies and how the various services differ from vendor to vendor. Having detailed conversations with all these vendors will also help in getting a better sense of how comfortable you are working with them. Once you narrow down the list and figure out who you want to be working with, it is important to work out a proper contract with the partner that will establish the roles and responsibilities. This should also include aspects such as costs and additional payments for on-off tasks.
Parting Thoughts
A total waste stream management process can help your business in many ways. You can save costs, reduce administrative effort, and can help you keep track of the numbers effectively. Finding the right vendor will ease your waste management efforts and can streamline the whole process, boosting its efficiency.
Having the right partner on board is the most important aspect here. You need someone with the right expertise and also the network of vendors to deal with all the types of waste you produce. We at Waste Control could be the ideal partner you are looking for. We have worked with hundreds of businesses in streamlining their waste stream management and helping them cut costs by 15-45%. Get in touch with us today to know how we can help you!