Companies of all sizes are just beginning to understand the potential for improvements. Collecting recyclable materials is only the first step in a series of actions that generate a host of financial, environmental, and societal returns. Improvement ideas come in all shapes, sizes and colours.
The key is to find ideas that work and then engrain them into the company culture. Hopefully the employees will take that awareness of the environment over into their private lives as well, and maybe spread it to family and friends.
The number of companies engaging in waste reduction and the amount of materials reused or recycled is now growing rapidly. No authoritative statistics are available but some estimates in the US, for example, are that the percentage of materials recycled has nearly tripled since 1990.
Companies in all industries and of all sizes can contribute to waste reduction and reduce the associated greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as help alleviate overflowing landfills. Generally, it is larger companies that more readily initiate environmentally friendly waste disposal and recycling programmes, with smaller companies – however willing – finding it difficult to support the additional resources sometimes required.
As a starting point, companies are challenged to identify specific measurable goals for waste reduction in their own operations and to work towards the goals they set for themselves.
The most frequent challenge to making processes sustainable is in achieving an acceptable ROI. The next biggest obstacles are the lack of reporting standards, the price of materials, and having the infrastructure in place to enable reuse or recycling.
A clear distinction exists between waste disposal and recycling. Waste disposal requires careful management to ensure waste is directed to areas that will not cause environmental pollution, health risks or other damage.
Recycling, which includes composting, diverts material away from disposal and produces many benefits. In the US alone, recycling diverted 83-million tons of material from disposal in 2008, which was up from 15-million tons in 1980, demonstrating the growing awareness in this essential process. Several key benefits include:
- protection of existing manufacturing jobs and the creation of new job opportunities in the recycling industry
- reduction of needs for landfilling and, perhaps more importantly in pollution terms, incineration
- saving of energy and prevention of pollution caused by the extraction and processing of virgin materials and the manufacture of products using virgin materials
- decrease of emissions of GHGs that contribute to global climate change
- conservation of natural resources such as timber, water and minerals
- aiding the sustainability of the environment for future generations.
What many do not realise initially is that recycling and reducing the waste stream not only makes sense from an environmental standpoint, but also makes good financial sense. For example, creating aluminum cans from recycled aluminum is far less energy-intensive and less costly, than mining the raw materials and manufacturing new cans from scratch.
Improving energy efficiency is the clear priority for companies working to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Energy efficiency is mostly achieved by efficient transportation strategies and reducing inventory levels,which translates into less space needed. Surprisingly, only a small percentage of companies purchase renewable energy and use biofuels and fuel cells.
Utility and electronics companies are most likely to use alternative energy sources.
What has become clear is that having a concern for the environment, responsible waste disposal and recycling are focuses that are beneficial to human health, the economy, and the future.