Today, we hear the word “trash” less and less from employees when referring to everything that is no longer suitable for production tasks. After all, competent waste management can, once and for all, turn into additional profit for the company.
But the path from a mediocre attitude toward waste accumulation to total separation and maintaining a stable 90-95% rate of transferring waste for reuse to reliable partners is a long marathon with constant obstacles and daily, painstaking work.
By understanding where, when, and how waste is generated, conducting an inventory, having passports for it, knowing the volumes, analyzing the current state of affairs, and seeing the costs of disposal at landfills, one can move on to “placing it on the market.”
In our company, we distinguish 25 waste groups, where cardboard alone is represented in four, which are accumulated and prepared for disposal in different ways.
“An operator-adjuster must produce products and meet the production plan; a packer must check the finished products and put them into corrugated boxes — they shouldn’t waste extra seconds sorting ‘trash’.”
“One container is enough for all waste; we don’t have room for a sorting plant.”
This is what colleagues said many years ago when landfill disposal costs were substantial and there was no readiness to change anything. But with the support of senior management, a powerful campaign began in the organization, primarily to reshape the mindset of staff and managers, with full carte blanche for creative activity and, as a result, to increase company income and reduce costs.
To interest new partners, it is necessary to:
A pricing analysis should be conducted taking into account public data on websites, comparisons of commercial proposals, frequency of pickups, type of transport, appearance and dimensions of waste, and costs of own raw materials and supplies. Having decided on suitable candidates for cooperation, it is necessary to conclude a contract taking into account all the details of the environmental legislation of the Russian Federation (product names (be sure to indicate waste as in the passport), forms of certificates, acceptance certificates, licenses, payment procedures) and start trial shipments, having thought through the loading scheme, time, and other details together with the logistics department.
And when the “music is ordered,” everything is gradually distributed and can “leave” in new directions, we can proceed to:
The waste market is extremely unstable — prices change, the political and economic situation in the country has an impact, changes in legislation take effect, and technologies are modernized or, conversely, mothballed. Extensive work is required to reach a level where staff understand that waste sorting is one of the mandatory actions — and that it is also simple, clear, and a matter of course — while income from waste sales is allocated to a separate target group of company profit with a constant annual increase.
By earning from waste, one can not only improve waste collection methods from production machines and their preparation for sale, optimizing the amount of labor involved, but also plan, justify, and approve costs for improving the enterprise’s safety level more quickly and easily (especially for those not belonging to large businesses). After all, environmental protection and occupational safety are a single block of issues managed by the HSE department, with one budget and common goals.
And yes, the HSE department can consider itself a full-fledged representative of the company’s sales department.