Composition Audit

There's more than one way to crack an egg and there's more than one way to conduct a Composition Audit. This is the Busch Systems way!

These are the steps we recommend you take for each Stream at every division throughout your organization. It will need to be repeated several times throughout the day, but following these simple steps will get you accurate data in an effective manner.

Start With Your Waste Stream

Expert Tip! We recommend starting with your Waste Stream at each division because it will likely have the most materials that need to be separated. This will hopefully allow you to keep the same tarp set-up throughout your audit without having to add more tarps later on.

At evey division, and through the sorting of every Stream, the Marketer(s) should be taking photos and/or videos to document the experience for future promotion.

1. Lay out your largest tarp closest to where your bags of Refuse are located. To be completed by the Set-Up Crew.

2. Lay out your smaller tarps for each of the following materials: glass, cans, plastic, organics, paper and cardboard. To be completed by the Set-Up Crew.

3. Lay out any additional tarps for any materials specific to your organization, ex. yard trimmings, or E-waste. To be completed by the Set-Up Crew.

4. Place signage on each of the tarps to indicate which materials should be placed on each tarp. We recommend keeping Waste on the largest tarp to avoid unnecessary handling. To be completed by the Set-Up Crew.

5. Dump the first bag of Refuse from your Waste Stream on to the largest tarp. To be completed by the Unloaders.

6. Separate each individual piece of reduse in your Waste Stream onto the tarp that best describes the material. Any Waste that does not fit into one of the other categories should be left on your largest tarp labelled Waste. To be completed by the Sorters.

7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 until all the bags of Refuse from your Waste Stream are emptied and sorted.

8. Use the template we've provided to fill in your estimated Stream composition for your Waste Stream. Do this by visually estimating the amount of Refuse on each tarp as a percentage of the Refuse on all the tarps.To be completed by the Recorders.

9. Bag up the Refuse from each tarp and label them. Set these aside to dispose of after your audit is complete. To be completed by the Clean-Up Crew.

10. Repeat steps 5 through 9 for each of the streams collected in this division.

11. Collect the materials needed to conduct the Composition Audit at the next program division. To be completed by the Materials Handler.

12. Clean up the area where you've audited using the broom and/or mop. To be completed by the Clean-Up Crew.

Coordinator, Expert & Materials Handler. While the Composition Audit is being conducted, these individuals can adopt other roles so that they also get to participate!

Once you have completed these steps, move your team on to your next program division and conduct an audit all over again using the same steps!