Visual Waste Audit

What is a
visual waste audit?

A visual waste audit entails walking through your building, identifying the location of your waste and/or recycling receptacles, and estimating the percentage of materials in each.

Most offices have standard waste streams and a visual audit is usually sufficient to determine the main types of waste and recycling your organization produces.

Ready to get started?

Here's how you prepare.

Map Collection Points

Map the location and size of each waste, recycling, compost receptacle, dumpster, and cart located throughout your building.

Performing a visual audit entails looking into dumpsters and interior bins to estimate materials quantities and understand how materials flow through the building.
Even if you don’t plan to visually audit every individual bin, it’s still important to know the location of each collection point as it allows you to make informed decisions on which are best to include in the audit.

Determine the Schedule for the Walk-Throughs

Dates: The visual audits should happen on “typical” days; for example, avoid scheduling near holidays.

Time period: Make sure the visual audits are completed right before the dumpsters (or carts) are emptied so that you see a representative sample of waste and estimate fullness levels at the time of collection. It’s also best to perform each audit at the end of a workday to see a representative sample of waste in the interior receptacles, but also before waste/recycling is collected and taken to the dumpsters/carts.

Next, get your
Materials Ready.

Here is what you will need to conduct your Visual Waste Audit

Clipboard and Pen/Pencil

Or tablet if you would like to record measurements electronically during the walkthrough

Data Collection Sheets

Or tablet if you would like to record measurements electronically during the walkthrough

Optional: Gloves

It’s not necessary to touch any trash or recycling during a visual audit walkthrough. However, it can be helpful to move pieces at the top of a receptacle to better see the materials at the bottom.

Optional: Camera

It can be helpful to take pictures to highlight aspects such as uncommon items, receptacles overflowing, or a lot of contamination.

Optional: Calculator

It can be handy to have a calculator to ensure the material estimates for each bin totals 100% and/or if you would like to convert your material volume estimates to weight-based estimates.

It's now time to
Conduct a Visual Waste Audit.

Get Ready

Gather your materials and have the list of exactly which dumpsters, carts, and receptacles you’ll be auditing that you identified in the planning process.

Audit Carts & Dumpsters

It’s usually best to start the audit with the dumpsters or rolling carts, where all the waste and recycling are taken and collected for pickup. This allows you to get a general assessment of the waste stream and answer questions about what you see as you continue to walk through different areas of the facility.

To audit a dumpster or cart:

1. Assess and record the size of the dumpster/cart/interior container (95-gallon cart, 4-yard dumpster, etc.) and how full each are (e.g., 10% full, 50% full, 90% full).

2. Look into the dumpster/ cart and estimate the percentage of a visible material stream; make sure the percentages of each container add up to 100%.

For example, an examination of the dumpster might show the waste by volume is 50% cardboard, 20% paper, 10% scrap metal, 10% recyclable plastic, 5% non-recyclable plastic, and 5% recyclable glass.
Take note if you see any unusual materials, contamination, or an especially large volume of a certain type of material.

3. Try and see if you can track down where the unusual materials or high volume of materials are coming from as you continue your walkthrough of the building.

Audit Interior Receptacles

Next, move through the building to audit the interior waste and recycling receptacles.

1. Note the location of each receptacle (e.g. 1st-floor breakroom, conf. room A, Office #1), its size (e.g. 7 gallons, 23 gallons), and its fullness level on the record sheet.

2. Look into the receptacle and mark down which material categories you see, and estimate how much of each makes up the visible contents. Make sure the percentages of each receptacle add up to 100%.

For example, an examination of an interior recycling receptacle might show the recycling by volume is 50% paper, 25% recyclable plastic, and 25% food waste (contamination).
If you are comfortable and have gloves, it can be helpful to look more closely into recycling receptacles by moving materials to see what’s underneath, as the denser materials tend to fall towards the bottom.
- It is not recommended to reach into landfill receptacles as the contents can be more diverse and could potentially puncture a glove.

3. Assess the receptacles themselves, including:

Are they well-placed and easily accessible to all employees?
Are landfill and recycling receptacles paired together?
Are they color-coded?
Do they have the appropriate signage with clear imaging?
Do they seem to be the correct size?
What color are the bags in the recycling container?
- Most recycling processors require recycling to be collected in clear plastic bags for correct processing at the recycling facility.

Observe Processes

As you walk through the building take the time to note any observations you make about how materials flow through the organization such as:

If any departments or areas of the building have a lot of one material stream.
If there are other potential locations for additional waste and recycling receptacles, particularly in areas with high material generation (e.g. copy machines and breakrooms).
If there is a need for more recycling education due to high rates of contamination in certain areas.
If there are collection points for third-party recyclables (e.g. electronics and scrap metal) or items to be donated.

Compile Data

Once your visual audit walkthrough or series of walkthroughs are completed, it’s time to compile the data and identify waste reduction opportunities. Compile the data from your visual audit walkthroughs into a spreadsheet. As a reference you can use either:

Or you can create your own spreadsheet to compile and analyze your data using the following steps:

Find the volume of each material recorded in a container using the following formula:
- Material Volume = container size x how full the container was x percent of material found in the container

It’s important to note that volume and weight do not always correlate. For example, a relatively light-weight material such as styrofoam can take up a large amount of space relative to its weight.
- If preferred, the estimated volumes can later be converted to weight estimations using the U.S. EPA’s Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors Table.

Use the spreadsheet to identify trends such as:
- The highest volume materials
- Contamination rates
- Departments or building areas that produce a high volume of one material type

Make Recommendations

After reviewing the results of the waste assessment, consider holding a brainstorming session to identify potential waste reduction activities. List your most promising options and evaluate them in terms of feasibility and how they align with your goals. When analyzing and selecting your activities:

Focus first on waste prevention, which will help eliminate waste at the source, saving natural resources and cutting costs.
Evaluate recycling and composting options to manage waste that cannot be prevented.
Implement waste reduction activities best suited for your organization. You may want to start off with one or two clear activities to get others engaged. Then roll out other initiatives as some of the early waste prevention and recycling behaviors become a habit.

Visual Waste Audit

What is a visual waste audit?

Ready to get started?

Here's how you prepare.

Next, get your Materials Ready.

It's now time to Conduct a Visual Waste Audit.

What is a
visual waste audit?

Next, get your
Materials Ready.

It's now time to
Conduct a Visual Waste Audit.