Review your business waste and save up to 50% with these simple steps.

How much does your company spend on waste disposal? Business waste management is often an afterthought – we pay for collection of bins or containers, but rarely think about how the costs of business waste disposal could be reduced – often significantly – with a few simple changes.

If you’ve not thought about how your business waste management system could be affecting your bottom line, or haven’t reviewed it for a while, check out our top tips to make sure your waste is working for you

Check what it is that your business regularly disposes of. Is there anything that could be recycled, rather than sent to landfill? Having dry recyclables (plastic, cardboard, cans etc) collected separately could be cheaper than sending everything to landfill – it’s more environmentally friendly too.

Do you have any waste streams you could make money from? It’s surprising how many waste materials can be reused into new products – for example Magnet Expert, whose waste polystyrene is now sent for reuse and made into moulded plastic chairs.

Check your bins! Are the bins or waste containers you have on site the correct size for the amount of waste you’re getting rid of? If your bins are being collected when they’re not full, you’re wasting money. Consider rescheduling waste collections to ensure you’re not paying for unnecessary collections.

If your bins are full more frequently, you’ll have to pay for additional collections. If this happens regularly you could consider getting a larger container to reduce the frequency of having to pay for extra collections. Our handy size guides for bins and larger containers can help you work out what you need.

Are your bins heavy? This will be costing you too! There are often hefty costs associated with the collections of overweight bins. Check if you are being charged regularly for overweight collections. Some of the other tips in this list will help you reduce the weight of your containers.

Check you have the correct collections –could you consider a food waste collection to save weight in your general bin? This saves weight in your general waste bin as the food is disposed of separately. It’s also environmentally friendly as the food waste is processed for fertiliser and to power electricity. Options are available no matter how much food waste your business has.

Save space and reduce the number of business waste collections by using a compactor. Compactors compress dry waste (you can also get one specifically for food) and dispense it into another container, meaning you can store more waste and reduce collections.

This can reduce the cost of managing your waste significantly – like Good Table and Cheer, a multi-venue hospitality business, who saved two-thirds of their waste costs by installing a cardboard compactor to reduce the number of collections. Compactors, balers and other equipment can be rented.

Consider new technology such as SmartTrash. If you have a waste compacter, installing a SmartTrash monitor can save you money on unnecessary collections. Once the monitor is installed, it tracks the compactor usage and works out the optimal time to empty the compactor, even alerting waste handlers when to do so.