We offer a waste audit service to help companies and organisations better understand their waste. It’s the first step in making more sustainable choices.

The Purpose

A waste audit is performed to:

• Create a baseline understanding of waste composition (if a waste audit has not been performed in the past)
• Track how your waste changes over time. This helps you understand, for example, how seasonal and production variations can impact waste generation
• Produce data that will help you procure differently and manage waste out of your supply chain
• Assist with the development of goals and targets and inform a strategy to minimise waste generation and maximise materials recovery. This will save you money!

You can only manage what you measure.

After an initial scoping session either in person or online, Waste Management Sustainability will provide you with a formal quote for the project. Every project is different, as the required resources and overall cost will depend on a variety of factors. These include:

• The type of waste (general waste, mixed recycling, single stream recycling)
• The quantity of waste (volume in m³ or quantity of bins)
• The location of the audit (either at the customer’s site or offsite at a WM facility)
• The location of the customer’s site (or multiple sites)

All these factors determine how many auditors are needed, how many days of auditing will take place and the logistics required to perform a successful and safe waste audit.

Once approved and all the operational plans have been made, Waste Management Sustainability’s expert team will confirm a date and time for the audit.

On the day of the audit, the team will process the waste, separating and categorising materials into 12 primary categories. The materials will be weighed, and photographs of the individual categories will be taken.

The information gathered during the audit process will be collated and supplied to the customer within a formal Waste Audit Report. The report will showcase all relevant data, including the breakdown of categories by weight (kg) and weight percentage (wt%), along with colour-coded graphs which depict the weight data in an easy to digest format.

Photographs of the different categories will be included, so you can view exactly what is being placed into your bins.

In addition to the compositional data, the real value add from this service offering comes in the form of Waste Management Sustainability’s experts reviewing the data and imagery, and providing feedback on areas of concern, opportunities for improved resource recovery and recommendations for waste minimisation based on actual real-world data.