Waste is generated in every place of business, but the type of waste and where it is generated can vary significantly. At its most basic, a waste audit is an evaluation of the materials in your waste stream and where that material is generated. Waste audits not only verify what is being thrown away, but also the value of the material being thrown out.
There are different ways of conducting an audit and they don’t all involve physically sorting through trash and recycling. This toolkit goes over how to conduct two different types of audits - visual waste audits and physical waste sorts.
Visual Waste Audit
Does the idea of sorting through trash make you nervous? Good news! A waste audit doesn’t always mean physically sorting through trash and recycling. A visual waste audit entails walking through your building, identifying the location of your receptacles, and estimating the percentage of materials in each receptacle and dumpster.
Visual audits might not provide as detailed information as a waste sort, but it takes less time and can provide information that a physical sort does not. For example, how materials flow through your organization and whether certain waste and recyclable receptacles are utilized effectively. In fact, it’s a recommended practice to perform a visual audit in preparation for a physical waste sort or to monitor progress in the interim between waste sorts.
Physical Waste Sort
This is the traditional type of audit people tend to think of when they hear “waste audit.” A waste sort involves collecting waste and recycling from your organization over a predetermined period of time, recording where the bags originated, and then physically sorting and weighing the materials by specific categories. The size of a waste sort can be flexible depending on the information you’d like to collect. It can be completed for the whole building or targeted at specific departments or areas.
This type of audit provides the most detailed picture of your waste stream. The data can provide insights on potential revenue streams you are throwing away, identify what materials are the most economically beneficial to reduce or replace with durable options, and provide a baseline to measure the success of your waste and recycling programs.
Which Audit is Best for My Organization?
Below is a table that details the strengths of each audit type and gives examples of the type of waste management goals each audit can help your organization work towards.
