How accurate is your waste hauler data?
Many businesses and organizations simply accept the data they receive from their hauler without question, and without verification. Businesses need to monitor their data to ensure continued accuracy, and to work with their haulers to investigate any discrepancies. Building a trusted working relationship with your waste hauler is essential.
Waste haulers are an important part of every business partnership. Trusted haulers will not only provide reliable service, but will also work with you to solve any challenges that might arise. And this is especially important regarding waste hauler data. A trusted hauler will help ensure you receive more accurate waste data, which is needed for every successful waste program. The data provided by your waste hauler (along with data from waste audits) helps your business evaluate the effectiveness of your waste reduction efforts, and determine if changes are needed. The waste metrics inform your overall sustainability reporting, affect your goals, and form the basis for all data-driven solutions. So what happens when those numbers are not correct?
Here’s an example of how we worked with a trusted hauler to solve a mystery together.
The Case Of The Suspicious Metrics
In the D.C. region, one of the haulers we work with is Georgetown Paper Stock (GPS). They collect and process a range of waste and recycling materials for our clients. One highlight of GPS’s service is that they provide 96-gallon toters for the collection and storage of mixed paper and glass-metal-plastic (GMP) recyclables. Every day, the hauler removes the full toters, and leaves behind empty ones. It is easy and convenient for buildings and businesses.
While their service was regular, we noticed that the waste data GPS was reporting did not seem to match what we thought was being collected and processed.
“If something does not look right, we always double check to verify the accuracy of the information our clients are receiving from their hauler,” explains David Troust, Great Forest’s Chief Development Officer.
“With the USGBC, GBCI and other organizations increasingly requiring more accurate and timely data, we strive to ensure that our hauling partners are able to provide us the most accurate waste data possible. This is a key part of what we do for clients, and it relies on the trust we’ve established with the haulers, and our understanding of how they operate.”
The Investigation
Great Forest went back to GPS and began asking questions.
Our investigation revealed that the empty GPS toters were not being placed in the same location in the loading dock every day. As a result, the signage that had been put up on walls of the dock, where the toters were supposed to be stationed, could not be used to identify which toters should be used for mixed paper, and which for GMP.
This created confusion among the janitorial staff. Cleaning crews had to take extra time to look into each toter to see what recyclables each held, and mistakes were being made. This lead to contamination of the recyclables collected, and a lower diversion rate for the client.
Payoff For A Trusted Relationship: More Accurate Waste Hauler Data
Great Forest worked with the hauler to find a solution. Due to the tight space available in the busy loading dock, we found out that it was not possible to guarantee that the toters could be placed in the exact same position each day. So we determined that labeling the toters would be the best and easiest solution. GPS toters are generally not labeled, but they agreed to label them for our clients.
“Georgetown Paper Stock is committed to providing the best recycling services in the industry at competitive pricing. We sincerely value our ongoing partnership with Great Forest and are committed to taking whatever steps are necessary to fine tune our processes and metrics reporting to ensure we are meeting our customer’s needs,” said GPS V.P. Dawn Jessel.
With the new system, we expect to see leaner waste streams, less contamination, less recycling disposed of in the trash, and more accurate metrics data.
“We’re glad that GPS is working with our team on this initiative, as one of our main goals is to ensure that our client’s efforts are supported fully by the haulers that service their properties,” said Troust.
“It’s a win win. It’s good business for the hauler, and quality service and accurate waste metrics data for our clients. That’s our payoff for building ongoing, trusted relationships.”