Companies can reduce their operating expenses and improve efficiency by adopting sustainable waste and recycling practices. Waste increases costs and carbon footprints and makes the company vulnerable to fines and other penalties due to regulation violations. Businesses should be responsible about the control and disposal of their garbage.
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Companies can reduce waste in their operations by doing the following:
- Conduct a waste audit – This will identify waste that could be recycled or repurposed instead of being dumped into the landfill.
- Talk to the waste disposal company in your area – You can ask your garbage company for advice on how to recycle more of your waste. You might be able to reduce your waste disposal bill by making heavier use of recycling.
- Manage your inventory – Intelligent control of your inventory will keep you from having too much stock on hand that could expire and end up in the dumpster.
- Eliminate unnecessary packaging – If the items you order come with excessive packaging, you will have to find a way to dispose of it. Talk to the manufacturer to see if they can take back and reuse the packaging.
- Track your waste online – EPA WasteWise will allow you to track where your waste goes.
- Donate excess food and slightly used items – If your company stocks food, find out how you can donate the unused items to food banks. If you have lightly used items that you might otherwise toss, see if they would benefit a charitable organization.
- Work with neighboring business owners to implement recycling – Find fellow companies to share equipment with. Pool your recycled items and sell them in bulk for a bigger return. Split the profits or, better yet, donate the proceeds to charity.
- Promote with signage – Use Recycle Across America standardized recycling signage available in several languages to encourage everybody to recycle.
- Engage your employees – Incentive your employees to recycle. Consider setting up a contest with an accompanying reward for the department of your business that recycles the most.
- Involve your customers and the community – Spread the word about your recycling initiative to your patrons and the community at large. Invite others to support the cause.
At EMS Solutions, we have adopted waste disposal and recycling programs company-wide. Through many small efforts, including putting recycling bins at the end of each production line, we have trimmed our waste to a minimum.