Cutting waste also cut losses

A NEW waste self-assessment tool developed as a Leaders for Geelong initiative has helped disability services provider genU save $5000 a year.

The Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group is driving the implementation of its “Rethink Your Footprint” tool designed to help businesses make significant improvements in their waste and resource recovery practices.

GenU Business Enterprises food services manager Peter Helyer said that when he came into the role 10 months ago, the organisation’s waste procedures needed improvement.

“One of our primary services is food preparation, and as a result, we produce considerable amounts of organic waste. Yes, we had a recycling bin, but everything else was going into one skip which was being emptied twice a week,” he said.

The “Rethink Your Footprint” self-assessment tool found that as much as 70 per cent of genU’s Business Enterprises total waste was flagged as organic and going straight to landfill.

“The audit on our bins and processes was truly eye-opening,” Mr Helyer said.

“It defined our issues in specific kilo/weight statistics, which helps you understand how you are doing things, and how a few operational changes can have a massive impact.”

Fifteen different waste streams were identified in the genU Business Enterprises audit.

Some simple recommendations to reduce costs and improve waste practices were to have skips emptied less regularly, and replace large skips with smaller, more defined, waste bins.

The “Rethink Your Footprint” tool is free for businesses and takes only 5-6 minutes to use, and provides understandable data to make informed business decisions for immediate and long-term sustainability.

The team at Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group provides additional follow-up support after use of the assessment tool to help businesses improve recycling habits.