HOW CAN YOU MAKE WASTE SEXY

Waste management is not regarded as a glamorous occupation, let alone sexy! However all businesses generate waste and pay for the disposal of it. The cost varies with the type of waste and amount of treatment it requires before it can safely be sent to land fill.

Typically hazardous waste is the most expensive due the level of treatment required to make it safe to dispose. So far so good, as we know all this.

But how can we make this sexy? By using basic waste management of course.

1. SEGREGATE WASTE

Segregation involves separating the waste into various streams that will allow maximum recycling. If all waste is mixed, the contamination by the most expensive waste (e.g. hazardous waste) will maximise your total waste cost.

Segregation does two things:

• Reduces your waste cost
• Allows maximum recycling of the scarce resources and makes us feel good – a little bit sexy.

Waste segregation is not easy because people do not put the right waste in the right bin. This is because people are both lazy and ignorant. They put waste in the first bin they see and are not sure which bin is the right one.

We blame them because we have:

• Not provided enough bins
• Not put the bins in the right place
• Not labelled the bins
• Not trained our staff how to recognise which waste goes where
• Not provided feedback to our staff on the performance of the waste system

2. STORE WASTE CORRECTLY

Waste storage facilities are definitely not sexy! Unless we set them up properly by:

• Placing the bins on an impervious surface such as concrete or asphalt
• Bund the waste area
• Waterproof covers of bin lids OR
• Cover waste storage area

Why do we need to do this? Go and look in a waste skip. You will see that the corners have holes deliberately inserted to allow water to drain away. Which means, so does the oil, dust and wet cardboard! Not sexy!

If we put the skip on soil the contaminants will contaminate the soil and /or stormwater. Also not sexy. This in fact is a large legal and financial liability.

3. ELIMINATE WASTE!

In nature there is no waste. EVERYTHING is recycled. All we need to do is mimic nature. In addition, we always own our waste even if we have paid someone to dispose of it. This represents a long-term liability for some companies.

So how do we eliminate waste? By turning it into a by-product which someone else will use. One of our clients asked how to dispose of the zinc dust they produced. I was able to put them in contact with a zinc processor, who paid for the zinc dust, eliminating this waste stream. They were so impressed they attended our Diploma of Environmental Management course, which provided them with further ideas to process waste into saleable products on-site.

Getting someone to pay for your waste is very sexy!

If you would like more information about waste management or any other environmental issue, contact us, we would love to hear from you.