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Your business,
however small, has an impact on the environment
 Implementing
schemes to reduce the amount of waste your business
produces today will benefit the environment,
lead to significant cost savings and increased process
efficiency as well as avoiding prosecution, fines and
increased taxes in the future. Taking steps to minimise
waste production will also promote the image of your
company in the eyes of future clients, consumers, employees
and shareholders.
Waste can be a significant cost
element for your business. On average
4 % of an UK company’s annual turnover is attributed
to waste costs.
Producing less waste can lead to savings in:
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Energy Costs |
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Waste Storage Space |
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Transport Costs |
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Disposal Costs |
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Administrative Costs |
In manufacturing processes increasing production efficiency
can reduce the amount of raw materials used in addition
to reducing disposal costs.
Reducing the toxicity (hazardous nature) of waste will
also lead to savings in treatment costs.
Waste reduction (minimisation) can be achieved on several
levels
Simply by
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Maintaining Good Practice
(e.g. good housekeeping, maintaining production
procedures, minimising spillages). |
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Re-use / Recycling of
Waste Products |
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Changing the Product
(e.g. reducing the weight of packaging, with a
consequent reduction in the waste produced by
the consumer). |
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Changing Input Materials |
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Technological Changes
(e.g. development of cleaner processes) |
The starting point of any waste minimisation scheme
must be to measure and cost all the materials that go
into a process and the waste that is produced (Waste
Stream Analysis). This will act as a benchmark (a baseline
reference) enabling any future reduction in waste and
cost to be easily quantified. It also allows a company
to discover the costs of each element in the waste stream
and highlights areas where savings can be made through
improvements in practice or re-design of products and
packaging.
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