Measuring waste is essential to ensure you can manage it. It is important to establish how much your company wastes in both quantity and cost so you can benchmark and monitor improvements.
You'll need figures for all your company's expenditure and wastes, including:
- Water, electricity and gas consumption - from utility bills.
- Effluent treatment - obtain costs from your subcontractor.
- Skips and landfill - from your subcontractors.
- Packaging, paper and board - inbound and outbound.
- VOCs, solvents and other chemicals.
- Consumables and office equipment.
- By-products of manufacture and unused raw materials.
Please refer to publications GG707 Measuring to manage: a 'how-to' guide and GG414 Measuring to manage: the key to reducing waste costs for more guidance.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking provides an indication of how a company is performing in terms of material use, water consumption and effluent generation (ie product loss) compared with others in its sector or industry standards. Companies that adopt a systematic approach can save money and increase their profits without having to raise prices.