EVENT GREENING FORUM

Why you should do a waste audit

Whether you are a one-person company working from home, a large national operation with multiple premises or are hosting an event, you can benefit from doing a waste audit. Here’s why.

As the name suggests, a waste audit is the process or looking through your waste to assess what types of waste you produce, and quantifying each waste stream by weighing it. (A waste stream could be paper or organic waste, for example.)

As Grace Stead, a sustainability practitioner and co-founder of the Event Greening Forum, said: “You cannot manage what you cannot measure.” Certainly, you cannot manage it very effectively.

The value of a waste audit

A waste audit is an interesting way to consider your company’s or event’s operations and looks for ways to improve it, and even save money in the process. Once you start to measure your waste, you can also start to set goals to reduce it.

For example:

• A waste audit can reveal excessive amounts of expired consumables or specific items being thrown away. This presents an opportunity to change your purchasing habits. Example: Great Forest, a US based waste solutions company, shares how one of their client’s discovered 30 per cent of its waste was disposable coffee cups, after which it eliminated these at their offices.

• Large volumes of landfill waste could motivate you to source products that are reusable or recyclable, or to implement a better recycling system. Example: exhibition stand builder Scan Display realised they were throwing a lot of (unrecyclable) bubble wrap away, so they created reusable furniture covers to reduce some of this waste.

• Binning lots of organic waste could motivate you to begin composting. If that sounds like a hassle, there are companies who can help you or do it for you — such as Earth Probiotic, Ywaste and Zero to Landfill Organics. And yes, in some cases they can even do this for events. Example: Spier has reported that 100 per cent of their organic waste is transformed into organic, nutrient-rich fertiliser that they use on their farmland.

• Contaminated waste could indicate you can improve how waste is separated at source (using a multi-bin system), so that more waste can be recycled. This could include educating your staff or attendees to gain their cooperation. Example: You could have a ‘green team’ manning waste areas at events, helping ensure attendees throw their waste into the correct bins.

Ready to start?

A waste audit can be conducted by external consultants. While this will cost money, you will benefit from advice on how to improve your operations and opportunities to save money. However, these audits can also be done by you and your team, for free. This makes sense for companies with few staff and minimal waste. Being so hands-on can be a great learning experience, but make sure you are prepped for it. The free DIY Waste Audit guide by Method Recycling should help, and can be found here: methodrecycling.com

In the case of events, event planners typically drive this process, and would contract a waste management company to oversee the process. This decision needs to be communicated with the venue, cleaning company and any other stakeholders, early in the event planning stages to gain their full support.

If you’re looking for green products and services to help you measure and reduce your waste to landfill, please visit www.greendatabase.co.za

About the EGF

The Event Greening Forum (EGF) is a non-profit organisation that promotes sustainability within the business events sector. It does this by hosting educational sessions for industry and lobbying government in an effort to implement sustainability principles into the daily operations of the events industry.

The EGF was established through dedication and support of eight industry associations who are recognised as founding members. The founding members are key industry associations working together to promote South Africa as a destination for various types of events.

Want to know more?

If you would like to know more about event greening, visit www.eventgreening.co.za where you can browse the free resources, sign up to the monthly newsletter, or contact them directly with any queries.

Contact: Lynn Mcleod

T: 082 891 5883

E: lynn@eventgreening.co.za