Your business produces a lot of waste, probably more than it did two years ago. Statistics have shown that while the average American produces 4.9 pounds of waste each day, industrial wastes could go as high as 7.6 billion tons a year. Now, you can imagine how much waste your business creates when you have five employees working 7-8 hours every day! Just as you produce more waste, you would incur more expenses in managing and discarding it. In addition, your business waste may negatively affect your working teams and environment. So, can you effectively reduce waste in your small business? Here are some useful tips.
Eliminate plastic water bottles
Your employees drink water at work every day, and if every one of them drinks more than a bottle of water each day, you may be dealing with a considerable plastic waste problem. You need innovative ideas to reduce the plastic waste your business produces. You should consider providing reusable bottles or glasses and filters in your break room. Also, you could attach a filter to your sink faucet or get a water cooler instead to help reduce the cost of purchasing considerable amounts of bottled water. These measures not only cut back your expenses, they also help keep your business environment sustainable and eco-friendly.
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Conduct a facility audit
Check and evaluate your facility for items and processes that create the most waste. Suppose your manufacturing or industrial company requires high-performance valves to process water and wastewater applications. In that case, it is advisable to choose automatic or manual valve options to check liquid or fluid flow in their mechanisms to avoid leaking valves that may create waste. Through a facility audit, you may also observe to implement alternative measures to reduce waste. For instance, you could consider implementing compost and recycling bins to reduce waste by turning it into eco-friendly solutions.
Go paperless
Your business must go paperless if you intend to bid farewell to waste. While many companies appreciate the need to go paperless, it has been a change many others struggle to achieve. A study has shown that the average US worker uses 10,000 paper sheets a year. This figure is quite disturbing, especially when you have 70% of these papers becoming waste. Therefore, businesses need to adapt and invest in various technological solutions for cost-effective and paperless options to reduce the paper waste it produces.
Measure and share results
You may have heard this before, but you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Ensure your hauler weighs your waste to calculate your waste generation every day and how much individual employees contribute to it. Make the results known to everyone and challenge them to reduce them. You can likewise make this a competition between your business departments. It is also helpful to create visible signs around the workplace to remind your staff to reduce their waste.
Identifying how to reduce your business waste provides sustainability, but this can be a challenge. Fortunately, these tips should be helpful for your waste reduction efforts.
Image by Manfred Richter