Saturday, April 1, 2017

How And Why Do You Need To Conduct Waste Audit

By Anna Morris


The society is growing increasingly sensitive about what is thrown away and how garbage is disposed. In a factory or organizational setting, discarded materials can be substantial and even affect your budget. This is why it is advisable to conduct a waste audit from time to time to establish your performance and find the best ways to deal with it.

Why should you go around auditing materials that are no longer useful to an organization? The main reason is to establish the position of the organization in terms of volume and composition of garbage. This gives you an idea of what you order or bring into an organization and what is discarded. You can tell the level of utilization of different substances ordered in such an organization.

Having a percentage or figure indicating how efficient your system is and areas where there is wastage, you will adjust your budget by addressing wastage. This leads to savings and better utilization of resources. It is an opportunity to raise the level of efficiency in an organization. Resource utilization within your organization will therefore be more efficient.

When the auditing results are shared with everyone in the organization, the level of awareness about wastage and utilization of resources is raised. All arms or departments in your organization should be notified. They become conscious and establish their contribution towards wastage or efficiency. This promotes prudent utilization of resources as statistics are glaring on the face of all people involved. It leads to reduction in carbon footprint and raises the profile of your company or organization externally.

There are simple steps to follow when auditing your waste. You need a team made up of representatives from each department. Involvement of health and safety personnel is crucial because they directly handle this garbage. Finance department should also be involved since it is in charge of resource allocation. You will be evaluating garbage accumulated over three days. Label the garbage indicating the stream, date of collection and source.

Ensure that you have the safety equipment required to handle the materials being audited. Apart from papers and containers to handle the discarded materials, carry protective clothing like gloves, safety shoes, overalls and eye protectors. Carry a checklist and camera for documentation purposes. The protective clothing used depends on the danger presented by these materials. Use disposed materials for a normal day other than days when there are events or occasions.

It is time to go through the garbage and classify it based on whether it is biodegradable or not, among other categories. Weigh different categories and record your findings. Indicate both the location and stream of each package you go through. Note the level of contamination and the elements causing decomposition. This will be important when preparing your report.

It is time to calculate the diversion rate. You divide the weight of materials being recycled by the sum of garbage recycled and overall garbage weight. You then multiply the resulting figure by 100 to get a percentage. When communicating your results to the organization, let everyone know the major sources of garbage. Use the opportunity to ask for suggestions on how each can play a part in reducing wastage or improving efficiency.




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