Waste Audit Certification

PURPOSE / FOCUS OF THIS COURSE

The purpose of this academy program is to provide the necessary knowledge to perform data collection for an effective audit of your organizations’ recycling & waste program. This program can serve as a reference document while you are performing your audit to assist you in ensuring the information gathering process is as organized and efficient as possible.

It should be noted that the details and instructions within are not universally applicable to every waste audit. There may be information that is not applicable to your specific program, and there may be additional information you must acquire necessary for you to be able to complete the audit that is not discussed. This guide is aimed to give a general overview of the auditing process and shouldn’t be used as the sole provider of guidance and information.

COURSE CONTENT / METHOD OF SHARING

This course will be broken down into three chapters, each offering guidance on how to perform and organize the corresponding phase of the waste audit. By providing a written guide full of instructions and helpful tips, we hope to make the process of performing a thorough waste audit less over-whelming.

1. Planning, Preparation and Materials
2. Data Collection
3. Calculations and Interpretations

At the end of the document will be a short summary multiple-choice test to ensure you grasp the concepts within.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The variable nature of companies and institutions recycling programs makes it difficult to create a guide that captures all the potential variables one might encounter while performing a waste audit. As such, this guide is designed for individuals who have already determined the experimental design of their auditing process.

This guide will not assist in determining when and where samples should be taken from, but will help in the organization of the physical resources involved in the data collection process. If you need assistance in the experimental design process, please see the “how-to” guides located within the Busch Systems Resource Center.

An institution-wide Waste Audit can involve large quantities of materials and it may seem like a daunting task at first. One effective way to help the process go smoothly is by having a thorough and effective plan. Some of the processes and steps listed in this document may have been completed prior to the physical audit, but will be listed again in case it was overlooked.

DETERMINING WHERE THE AUDIT WILL TAKE PLACE

After the waste has been collected from various locations all around your institution, they should all be brought to a predetermined location where the actual sorting and weighing process will be taking place. This should be a fairly large room, away from commonly utilized and high traffic areas to not disturb the day-to-day activities within your organization.

Because of the messy and odorous nature of a waste audit, it is recommended that the audit be conducted in a room with windows that can open to help bring some fresh air into the room. Also, keep in mind the flooring situation, as it is not wise to perform a waste audit on a carpeted floor. It’s a messy procedure and you don’t want to be ruining your flooring in the process.

ASSIGNING ROLES & RESPONSIBILTIES

It is likely that in the waste collection portion of the auditing process that you acquired some much-needed help from other members of your institution. Ask these individuals if they would like to assist in the physical sorting and weighing portion of the waste audit also! These individuals will assist in the actual data collection process, each having a defined role to help spread the responsibility around and not overwhelm one individual with many different tasks.

The primary roles you can consider filling are…

• Sorters - These individuals will undoubtedly be getting dirty. Their primary role is to sort the waste into the different pre-defined composition groups. In addition, after the recording process has been done, the Sorter may be responsible for ensuring the waste gets put back in the right stream.
• Weighers - The Weighers will be responsible for determining the quantity of waste in each composition stream. As the sorter breaks up the bag of waste and organizes it into different piles, the Weigher will place the waste on a scale and communicate the value displayed to the Recorder.
• Recorder - This individual isn’t likely to get very messy. Their primary role is to jot down the values that the Weigher is communicating to them and ensuring the data is entered. Accuracy is key to preserve the validity of the data.

EDUCATION

After you have figured out where your audit will be taking place, and who it is that will be helping you, ensuring everyone is on the same page is the next logical step. The primary area of concern when performing a waste audit is to what level will the Streams be broken into?

For your specific needs it may be fine to record all plastic materials as just “Plastic”, but if you wanted more detailed and potentially more valuable information it may be a good idea to break it down further into sub-stream categories. Communicating this information with your helpers is critical in ensuring that all the data is accurate and uniform.

Because the whole purpose of this audit is to determine not only the volume of waste created, but also the composition, you may not know what sub-stream categories to display on the data recording sheet, this is why it's best to use as many as possible and just leave the ones blank that you don’t find.

Here is a list of some streams and their common sub-stream components…

Plastic

• (PET #1) Polyethylene Terephthalate (soft drink bottles)
• (HDPE #2) High-Density polyethylene (bottle caps, some plastic piping)
• (PVC #3) Polyvinyl Chloride (chemical bottles, some flooring)
• (LDPE #4) Low-Density Polyethylene (plastic bags, plastic wraps)
• (PP #5) Polypropylene (some take-out cups, some industrial fibers)
• (PS #6) Polystyrene (toys, takeout containers, beer cups)

Paper

• Tissues & Towels
• Cardboard
• Fine Paper
• Glossy Paper
• Box Board
• Craft Paper (paper packaging)
• Aseptic Containers (some beverage containers)
• Milk Cartons

Metal

• Steel Cans
• Steel Scrap
• Aluminum Cans
• Copper Scrap

Glass

• Clear
• Brown
• Green

Organics

• Food Scraps
• Yard Waste

Other Materials

• Wood Pallets
• Drywall
• E-Waste
• Diapers

While this list may seem extensive, its quite possible many of the fields will be left blank on your data collection sheet, or you may find some materials that will need to be added. This just serves as a reference list to the types of materials you may encounter during the auditing process. It is very important that everyone understands what types of materials belong under which categories to acquire accurate and precise data. Consider having a reference sheet depicting items commonly found in each sub-stream printed off for easy reference for all those involved.

Another piece you should discuss with your team members is possible contamination. You will commonly find materials in a stream that don’t belong, like paper in the plastic stream. Knowing what materials you are finding in a stream that don’t belong is an important part of the audit process as it allows you to identify areas for improvement in your recycling system.

On your waste audit tracking sheet ensure to put a separate column for contamination with space to put the different materials that compose the contamination as well as the associated weights. Make sure your team knows that tracking contamination composition and weight data is equally as important as the properly diverted materials.

AUDIT TRACKING SHEET

In order to have uniform data entry sheets, it is highly advised one be created prior to the audit process and printed off for all individuals. This allows an easy transition from paper copy to electronic format as all values are entered in identical fields.

The audit tracking sheet may include…

• The individuals performing the audit
• The date of the audit
• The area/building/division the waste originated from
• Extensive list of potential streams/sub streams
• Weight of sub streams found
• Weight of materials improperly diverted (contamination)
• Total Weight

A tracking sheet that contains all of the above fields should give you an excellent tool as it supplies all the information necessary to create charts and graphs to visually display the data.

AUDITING EQUIPMENT

The following is an extensive list of materials that will assist you in performing the audit. Some items listed may not be necessary, and you may find others that you need that are not present, this just serves as a guide to make sure you have the necessary equipment to ease the auditing process.

The audit tracking sheet may include…

• Audit Sheets
• Clipboard
• Writing Utensils & Calculators
• Large Plastic Tarps
• Plastic Gloves & Protective Eyewear
• Paper Towels & Hand Sanitizer
• Weighing Scale & Weighing Scale Bowl
• Mops & Buckets for Liquids and Clear Plastic Bags
• Did we say Extra Audit Sheets?

A tracking sheet that contains all of the above fields should give you an excellent tool as it supplies all the information necessary to create charts and graphs to visually display the data.

WASTE INVENTORY

Hopefully in the waste collection process you ensured that the collected waste was labelled to determine the location the waste came from. This will make sure your audit can determine areas that need improvement, or areas that can serve as a model for the rest of your system. Divide up the waste bags or containers by area, division or building they originated from and ensure each has the appropriate number of samples that were collected.

ROOM SETUP

If you adhered to the suggested room setting you should have a large, well-ventilated room with a hard floor for easy cleanup. Divide the room up into separate stations, each representing a different location the waste originated from. Place the waste bags or containers at each station, and ensure every station also has all of the necessary auditing equipment present (Pencils, clipboard, scale etc.) Also, place a bucket at each station to dispose of any potential liquid found in the waste bags.

In addition, setup at the front of the room, or in a central location, additional clear bags/containers for the materials to be put in after measuring. Label the bags and containers after the streams you will be measuring (organics, plastics etc.) Since you are sorting all the waste, you might as well ensure that all the waste contamination is returned to the appropriate waste stream.

ASSIGN ROLES & DESIGNATE STATIONS

Grab your helpers and make sure there is a Sorter, Weigher and Recorder in each group. Make sure everyone knows the auditing procedures, their specific roles, how to fill out the supplied audit sheet and the correct materials that compose each stream. Assign your groups to specific stations and begin the auditing process!

Now that the room is setup, materials are supplied, volunteers are educated and ready the data collection can begin. Depending on the size and scope of your audit, and the amount of experience of the volunteers, the time required to complete data collection can vary quite significantly. Ensure adequate time has been allocated to completely perform the audit.

The data collection process is the actual sorting, weighing and recording of the waste values. Quite often actually starting the data collection process can get off to a slow start as a routine hasn’t been determined. Your helpers are now in their individual groups looking over at the large pile of bags that need to be sorted, you can literally see the enthusiasm they had moments ago begin to drain from their bodies. This section will hopefully alleviate some of that initial confusion and frustration by providing step-by-step instructions.

SORTING

1. Arrange Recycling bags into groups of streams (Plastics, Organics, etc.)
2. Open first bag and empty contents by hand onto one supplied tarp
3. If there is any liquid left in the bag, hand to the Weigher to empty into the weighing bowl and get the recorder to write down the displayed weight. Then dispose of the liquid into the supplied bucket.
4. Begin dividing contents from the main tarp into materials that belong, and those that don’t belong (Contamination). Consider putting contamination on a separate tarp to avoid confusion.
5. Afterwards divide those groups into the smaller sub-stream materials like LDPE and HDPE for plastics
6. Ensure the contamination pile is divided up similarly
7. You should now have two full tarps, each with many piles all representing the different sub-streams of the measured stream and stream contamination.
8. As the Weigher finishes measuring materials take the now measured and recorded bowl of materials and empty into the appropriate bag/container at the front of the room

WEIGHING

1. Decide if you will start weighing contamination or properly diverted materials first
2. Communicate to the recorder your choice and which sub-stream will be the first to be weighed
3. Ensure scale is plugged in, working correctly and displaying the proper units
4. Tell the recorder the weight of the container or scale bowl you will be putting the materials in for future reference
5. Either put the empty bowl on the scale and hit the “Zero” or “Tare” button to clear the weight of the bowl and add the materials directly into the bowl on the scale, OR, put materials from the tarp into the bowl and place onto the scale, then subtracted the previously recorded weight of the bowl.
6. Communicate again the sub stream you are weighing and the displayed value for its weight.
7. Repeat steps for each sub-stream, and then move on to contamination again repeating the steps.
8. After all sub-streams and contamination streams have been measured for the first main stream (plastic, paper etc.), move on to the next and repeat process

Recording

1. Make sure all the preliminary data such as names, date and location where the waste originated from is filled out correctly.
2. Ensure you are entering the values that the Weigher is giving you in the proper fields.
3. Try to keep the audit form as neat and as clean as possible to reduce the risk of ink running or damage to the form
4. After the weight data for each sub-stream has been entered, calculate the total weight of the stream
5. Repeat steps for each main waste stream
6. After all bags have been emptied calculated the total waste from the sampled location
7. Ensure all necessary fields are filled out correctly
8. Ensure all calculations are performed and performed correctly
9. Give the completed audit form to the audit coordinator.

Cleanup

1. Wipe off all tarps
2. Empty liquid waste buckets into designated areas
3. Dispose of original waste collection bags and plastic gloves into proper waste stream
4. Take properly diverted bags and dispose of in designated disposal area
5. Wash weigh bowl/containers
6. Mop floors (if necessary)
7. Deodorize room (if necessary)
8. If multiple audits will be carried out throughout the week, place required materials in a safe place for easy access at a later time.
9. Double check all audit forms have been collected

Now that you have all the data collection forms on hand, its time to begin performing the calculations to see some meaningful data. This section will walk you through how to find your diversion and contamination rates, as well as composition percentages for both your diverted materials and contamination.

DIVERSION RATE

Your Diversion Rate is the overall percentage of waste materials diverted from landfills to be composted or recycled. It is one indicator of the effectiveness of your recycling program.

$$\frac{\text{overall weight of recycled materials}}{\text{overall total weight}}* 100 = \text{Diversion Rate}$$

$$\frac{157 \text{lbs of recycled materials}}{201 \text{lbs total weight}}* 100 = 78.1\% \text{Diversion Rate}$$

COMPOSITION PERCENTAGES

On your audit form, your total weight is composed of the weights from each of the measured streams like plastic, paper and organics. A composition percentage allows you to see what percentage each stream contributes to the overall weight.

$$\frac{\text{stream weight}}{\text{total weight}}* 100 = \text{Composition Percentage}$$

$$\frac{24 \text{lbs of plastic recycled}}{201 \text{lbs total weight}}* 100 = 11.9\% \text{of total weight is plastic}$$

SUB-STREAM COMPOSITION PERCENTAGES

Your streams on your audit form were further broken down into sub stream materials like LDPE and HDPE plastics. Using the same type of equation listed above you can calculate what percentage of your total stream weight is made up of a specific sub stream material.

$$\frac{\text{weight of sub stream material}}{\text{total weight}}* 100 = \text{Sub-Stream Composition Percentage}$$

$$\frac{24 \text{lbs of plastic recycled}}{201 \text{lbs total weight}}* 100 = 11.9\% \text{of total weight is plastic}$$

CONTAMINATION RATES

Your audit almost certainly indicated that some materials were being placed in the wrong waste receptacles. Your contamination rate will indicate what percentage of the total weight was placed in the incorrect locations. One way to look at this is the room your recycling system has for improvements.

$$\frac{\text{overall contamination weight total}}{\text{overall total weight}}* 100 = \text{Contamination Rate}$$

$$\frac{44 \text{lbs of waste contamination}}{201 \text{lbs of total weight}}* 100 = 29.1\% \text{Contamination Rate}$$

CONTAMINATION COMPOSITION

In the same way you wanted to find out what percentage of materials makes up your recycled waste, you will want to know what materials are making up your contamination. This offers a great starting point of where to focus to improve the effectiveness of your recycling program. If you are seeing an abundance of one type of contamination, perhaps better signage or education is necessary to begin properly diverting those materials.

$$\frac{\text{contamination category weight}}{\text{total weight of contamination}}* 100 = \text{Contamination Composition}$$

$$\frac{7 \text{lbs of overall plastics contamination}}{24 \text{lbs of overall contamination}}* 100 = 15.9\% \text{Plastic Contamination}$$

STREAM CONTAMINATION COMPOSITION

Maybe you noticed a significant amount of your contamination is composed of just plastic materials, the next piece of information you would be interested in knowing is in what waste stream are the plastics being disposed into? This calculation will show you what percentage of a streams contamination is composed of a specific material.

$$\frac{\text{weight of stream contamination material}}{\text{weight of stream contamination}}* 100 = \text{% Contamination}$$

$$\frac{8 \text{lbs plastic found in paper}}{12 \text{lbs of paper contamination}}* 100 = 66.6\% \text{of plastics are HDPE}$$

SUB-STREAM CONTAMINATION COMPOSITION

Now that you have identified what material composes the majority of your contamination, and what receptacles that material is being improperly disposed of into, perhaps you would want to know what sub stream material of the contamination is contributing most? This calculation will show you which sub material is responsible for what percentage of your streams contamination.

$$\frac{\text{weight of sub material contamination}}{\text{weight of stream contamination material}}* 100 = \text{Substream Contamination %}$$

$$\frac{1.2 \text{lbs of HDPE plastic in paper}}{8 \text{lbs of plastic in paper}}* 100 = 15.0\% \text{of plastic contamination in paper is HDPE plastic}$$

With the preliminary information gathering stages behind you it is time to start analyzing the data and determine what it means for your organization. Chances are there are clearly identified areas for improvement with some low-hanging fruit to start with, maybe some better signage, education or perhaps additional disposal options for your organization.

But you're not done yet! Now that you know how to perform a waste audit, and the value it can have for your organization, it is suggested for you to set up a schedule to perform additional audits in order to track the improvements that you will be making to your system, and to have historical data for future use.

The good news is that we here at Busch like to make things easy for you, we have developed an online resource tool that will help you track your waste data on a daily basis, without the mess and stress. Take a look at the Busch Systems Resource Center for further information on how you can use our software to electronically track your waste data!

This concludes Busch Systems Waste Audit Certification Guide, we hope we have supplied enough information and helpful tips to assist you in performing a successful and stress-free waste audit. Be sure to complete the short multiple choice test to receive your Waste Audit Certification indicating you have successfully completed the program and are well on your way to implementing an incredibly efficient waste management system!