Waste Management, So Much More Than Emptying the Bins

Waste Management Should Be So Much More Than Emptying the Bins

July 24, 2020
, Waste Management

Waste Management Should Be So Much More Than Emptying the Bins : Is now the time to re-evaluate the waste status quo?

Companies are now being encouraged to look at the way they work, with many reorganising manufacturing floors and reengineering workspaces. With an eye firmly on improving performance, there is an opportunity to stop, and take a deep dive into managing your waste process.

Many organisations are now having to consider new waste streams, including an increase in, or the introduction of PPE, that have not been relevant until now.

Understandably, companies are taking this time to re-evaluate current waste processes and explore ways to improve.

With cost-reductions high on the agenda, smarter solutions are being demanded from waste providers. It is better to find opportunities to release value in your waste, than look to reduce other indirect or direct costs.

Waste has always been an interesting category. Customer expectations of the industry have, at times, been little more than an expectation to ‘empty the bins’. However, waste is torn between two significantly conflicting priorities – lowest cost versus lowest environmental footprint.

Ensuring Best Environmental Outcome

The best environmental outcome does not need to be the most expensive, and it can even produce cost reductions if you really get into the detail. Traditionally, customers enter supply contracts with waste companies by buying the lowest or cheapest quote –this may not always prove to be the best solution.

A good waste management partner will provide ongoing solutions to meet both CSR objectives, and tackle rising costs by ensuring value trapped within the waste is realised. ‘Where there’s muck, there’s brass’ is as true today, as it was 100 years ago.

Costs Out, Not Prices Down

To get costs out, you need to seek suppliers who can partner and have goals which are broadly aligned to your own. You also need to ensure that suppliers are not stretched too thinly, or too diversely in terms of waste expertise. There is a huge difference between managing waste from manufacturing, compared to either retail or domestic waste collection.

When thinking about waste as more than simply ‘rubbish’ or ‘recycling’, it’s not uncommon for a well-managed manufacturing site, with a proactive Total Waste Management solution, to be generating over 40 separate streams.

Good segregation is the key to unlocking value, and value means ‘costs out’ as revenue-generating waste starts to emerge, rather than the traditional prices down approach. Joined up procurement, production efficiency and lineside segregation, as well as a willingness to implement the processes necessary to segregate waste or surplus materials as they are generated, are the key to value.

If you just drop it all into the same skip, you are leaving lots of value for your waste provider to realise instead of you – those Range Rovers aren’t going to buy themselves.

Axil Integrated Services aim to give customers the best service and value, with the best environmental outcome. As a leading Total Waste Management company, they provide bespoke solutions, with a true partnership approach.

Benefits of Total Waste Management

Total Waste Management can deliver bespoke solutions for businesses who are looking to drive out costs, increase recycling and reduce their overall impact on the environment. If your company produces a variety of waste streams, or spends time managing multiple suppliers, then you would benefit from a Total Waste Management partner.