Module 1: Solid Waste Reduction
- Overview
- Gathering Information
- Identifying Opportunities
- Planning Your Program
- Program Implementation
- Resources
Gathering Information
Before beginning your waste reduction program, you need to have an idea of what types of waste are generated and in what amounts. Knowing this information allows you to target the largest waste streams for reduction and thereby make the most impact with your program. For this step, this module refers you to several worksheets developed by EPA. You can link to each worksheet within the module or refer to EPA’s Business Guide for Reducing Solid Waste, available for download from the EPA website.
Worksheet A—Facility Background Information asks for general information about your business, including the number of employees and the number of floors. This information is useful when you begin designing your program.
For Worksheet B—Records Review: Waste Collection and Removal, you need to seek certain business records (including waste-hauling and janitorial contracts) that indicate how your solid waste is removed and how much is spent on waste-removal services.
Worksheets C and D both involve gathering specific, detailed information on your business’s waste. Let us discuss Worksheet D—Waste Sort Instructions first. Also known as a solid waste assessment or audit, the waste sort gives you the most detailed profile of your waste. You either sort through all the waste your business generates in one day (smaller business), or sort a representative sample (large business).
NOTE: If you’re in a health-care facility, please refer to the fact sheet entitled Conducting a Waste Sort, from Hospitals for a Healthy Environment.
Small businesses
If you’re sorting an entire day’s waste, ask the janitorial staff to place all the waste gathered for the sort in one location, far enough from the dumpsters so the waste hauler will not pick it up. Each member of the janitorial staff working that day needs to be told not to discard the waste. They will collect one workday’s worth of waste from:
- Individual workstations/offices
- Common-use areas
- Meeting rooms
- The cafeteria
- Outside waste containers
- Other areas you may identify
Medium and large businesses
Larger businesses can examine a representative sample of waste. The EPA suggests a sample size of about 50 lbs. of waste from each Dumpster. As with the more comprehensive method, make sure the day of the sort is also representative. Do not conduct a sort during a holiday season, the day after a large order of computers, or a business-wide “Clean Your Files Day” event. These types of special events will skew the data and make your results less meaningful. If you determine you have an adequate number of employees to form a waste sort “team,” look at Fact Sheet 1 or more information regarding team-member roles.