Waste data can uncover opportunities to lower costs, increase diversion and improve sustainability performance. Better data leads to better decisions. But what types of waste data does a business actually need to get actionable insights for better waste management? We break it down.
Waste management is something every business has to address, yet many organizations do not have reliable waste data to help them understand their program’s effectiveness or identify any issues. With rising waste costs and increasing pressure to meet ESG targets, businesses with inaccurate waste data will be limited in their ability to meet their financial and sustainability targets. That gap will grow bigger and become more costly over time.
Using Waste Audits for Better Data
To make an impact, sustainability leaders and facility managers need to move from ad-hoc waste management to data-driven operations. Is your business still relying on waste invoices or occasional estimates rather than a consistent set of measurements provided by waste audits or other verified sources? It may be time for a change. Depending on your corporate zero waste or sustainability goals, waste audits can be designed to be targeted or broad to collect the information you need.
Below, we break down the eight waste metrics every organization should consider tracking and collecting, and why they matter.
The Eight Most Important Commercial Waste Management Metrics
1. Total Waste Generated
Start with the big picture. How much waste does your organization generate?
Track total waste by weight and volume whenever possible, rather than relying only on the number or size of containers, which may be picked with varying levels of fullness.
Measuring waste in consistent units creates a baseline and makes it easier to identify trends over time and compare performance across similar businesses and facilities. This data can also help you identify potential billing inconsistencies, especially if you are being charged for hauling more waste than you generate.
2. Waste by Material and Stream
Now that you know how much waste you are generating, find out what it is made up of. A waste audit can identify the materials in your waste stream, such as cardboard, paper, food waste, plastics, metals and electronics.
This breakdown of material can uncover opportunities for source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, and it can identify gaps or faults in your waste program. For example:
- When a waste audit found that packaging plastics made up more than 40 percent of the audited landfill waste for one manufacturer, Great Forest implemented a system to capture and recycle this plastic material, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in packaging plastics going to the landfill.
- At one university campus, waste audits revealed that 35 percent of the trash stream consisted of potentially recyclable materials, including a large amount of Keurig K-cups. The findings helped the university reevaluate its coffee pod program to address the source of the waste.
- When one building was unable to solve a persistent recycling contamination problem, Great Forest provided the solution by conducting a waste audit to understand the building’s waste profile, and develop customized diversion programs for the materials identified. As a result, the building’s waste costs decreased by up to $20,000 per month.
3. Waste Diversion Rate
A waste diversion rate measures the percentage of waste that is diverted from landfill through recycling, composting, reuse or other recovery methods.
A basic diversion rate is calculated by dividing the total amount of material diverted from landfill by total waste generated. Tracking diversion over time helps businesses determine whether waste reduction and recovery programs are working.
A diversion rate is a useful indicator of your organization’s recycling and recovery performance, but it does not tell you how much of your waste stream is recyclable or compostable or whether you are capturing everything possible. That is why diversion data should be considered alongside the other metrics in this list.
4. Reuse, Recycling and Composting Performance
Not all diversion strategies have the same environmental or cost benefits. Tracking the amount of material that is reused, recycled, composted or donated separately, when possible, gives you the data you need to evaluate each strategy and choose the best solution.
- For example, a waste audit at one restaurant chain found that nearly 27 percent of its daily food waste was high-quality surplus food that could potentially be donated rather than composted. The audit provided the data needed to plan a food donation program.
Breaking diversion into individual categories gives sustainability teams a clearer picture of what is driving performance and where additional opportunities exist to reuse, donate, or reduce.
5. Total Landfill Disposal
Diversion tells part of the story. Companies should also track how much material ultimately goes to landfill.
Reducing landfill disposal can help organizations make progress toward zero waste and sustainability goals while identifying opportunities to recover additional materials. Reducing landfill disposal also helps to control rising landfill fees.
6. Waste Data by Facility or Location
For organizations with multiple buildings or locations, averages can hide significant differences between locations. One facility may generate substantially more waste than another because of its operations, occupancy, purchasing practices, waste infrastructure or collection services.
Tracking waste generation and other metrics and costs by facility, location, or even by tenant in a building can help organizations identify outliers, pinpoint problem areas, and prioritize resources where improvement efforts can have the greatest impact.
7. Waste Management Costs
Businesses should measure costs associated with hauling, disposal, recycling, composting, equipment, container rentals and other waste-related services. Looking at costs alongside waste volumes can reveal important trends.
For example, increasing waste costs may result from higher disposal rates, unnecessary pickups, poorly-sized containers or changes in waste volume. Understanding the relationship between waste volume and waste costs can help organizations right-size services and make better operational decisions.
- One hotel eliminated composting service and added a high-tech digester in an effort to cut costs. But, the decision was made without a complete understanding of how its waste costs were calculated. Costs increased and diversion plateaued until Great Forest identified the miscalculation.
8. Cost per Ton or Other Useful Unit
Total waste costs are useful, but they don’t always provide enough context. Cost per ton can reveal changes in disposal costs that may not be obvious from a monthly invoice.
Depending on the business, other useful measures may include waste generated per building tenant, per employee, per square foot, per guest, per unit produced or per customer served. These metrics make it easier to compare performance over time and identify areas that may warrant further investigation.
How to Turn Waste Data Insights Into Action
Collecting data is only the first step. The real value comes from analyzing the figures, understanding what they mean, identifying trends and issues, and using those insights to make better, more impactful decisions.
Here’s an example of how Great Forest turned real waste audit data from an NYC skyscraper into actionable insights. The case study reveals what the building was actually throwing away—from significant amounts of recoverable organics to heavily contaminated recycling—and how those findings pointed to specific solutions for improving diversion and waste management.
Better Waste Data, Better Decisions: How Does Your Business Measure up?
For broader benchmarking, explore data from the largest global study of commercial waste, which analyzed over 170,000 pounds of commercial waste from over 100 waste audits conducted by Great Forest at buildings across the US and internationally. The study found that 62% of material in commercial building trash streams is not actually trash but potentially divertible material, highlighting the scale of the opportunity for better waste data and smarter waste management. What’s is your business sending to the landfill?
Need help? Great Forest is a leader in waste audits, helping organizations evaluate their waste streams, identify opportunities and develop practical strategies to reduce waste, improve diversion and manage costs. Talk to Great Forest today about data-driven waste management.
Photo: Nicholas Cappello, unsplash
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