There is a historical site near where I live that has many houses from over the centuries of the city’s founding. It is a good place for archaeologists and historians interested in colonial New England, as it was basically a landfill in ye olden times. They are still finding bits of pottery, old garden layouts and compost bins, and other remnants of formal and informal waste management systems. Sometimes trash can be really interesting!
For many businesses, reducing and, ideally, eliminating waste is a financial and environmental priority. Not only it is the one of the most visible environmental impacts, it is also something that can usually be changed with quick and communicable results. In this blog, I am going to share a few reasons on why you should take the time to explore zero waste for your company.
First and most obvious is the financial savings. Paying for trash pickup can quickly become expensive. Depending on your contract, you may be able to save money by reducing the overall weight, number of bins, and/or the frequency of the hauls. If you have any specialty materials, the hauling for these can also be a significant cost burden. Though a new waste management system may still involve hauling, such as commercial compost options and recycling, an overall reduction in materials and waste will result in financial savings.
On a similar line of financial benefit, the resource efficiency of many businesses could be greatly improved. You want to get the most out of everything you purchase, so keeping an item in circularity for as long as possible extends the dollars used to obtain it. This is beneficial for your bottom line and also for the environment. The emissions to create, ship, and eventually dispose of that product, along with the other environmental extractions, can be stretched out when the product is kept in circulation. The unfortunate truth of many waste management systems today is that they are inadequate for the amount and variety of waste we as a society produce. The endless discussion over plastics, glass, and metals in recycling is a symptom of this. Though it is absolutely worth taking the time to make these systems circular and your business would do well to properly sort waste streams to avoid cross-contamination, an even better solution would be to have less waste overall. This would save the resources required for recycling and disposal as well as the production needed for new products.
Speaking of emissions, let’s talk about methane. When you put organic waste such as a banana peel into a landfill, it decomposes anaerobically, meaning without oxygen. This produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Landfill methane accounts for a significant portion of human-caused methane. Keeping organic waste out of landfills by reducing waste overall and diverting organic waste to management systems such as composting prevents that greenhouse gas from being produced. If you want to nerd out about landfill methane and its uses, the University of New Hampshire Ecoline is an example of landfill gas used as a power source, and Project Drawdown offers details on methane capture as well.
In addition to the methane from landfills, improper waste management can result in water and soil contamination. It is much harder to decontaminate something than to stop it from becoming contaminated in the first place. In a worst case scenario for your business, you could end up in legal trouble down the line if there are community health impacts from your operations.
Lastly, employees have a better experience. Have you ever taken out a trash bag that is mostly filled with liquid? What about doing so during a heat wave? Proper waste management systems inside of a company take into account the safety and work experience of the people handling that waste. By designing with those people in mind and at the helm, waste can go from being the worst part of someone’s day to an easy routine, one that is less likely to be handed off to reluctant newbies.
Waste reduction isn’t always at the forefront of a business owner’s mind. After all, it is no longer part of the customer experience or the product. It is the very last step, but that doesn’t mean it is undeserving of attention. There are financial, environmental, and social benefits to designing a sustainable waste management system.