Making Recycling a Reality
Part 1: Successful Recycling: A Three-Step Approach
Part 2: Common Recycling Streams
Part 3: Recycling: Containing Costs
Part 4: Recycling: Dispelling Common Myths
Successful Recycling: A Three-Step Approach
By Wayne D. DeFeo - March 2010
Facility managers face an ever-growing list of responsibilities in overseeing efficient and streamlined departments. Now, to make their jobs more challenging, they also must find a cost-effective method to recycle a more complex mix of materials.
Successful recycling starts with three steps. The first step is to establish the aims of the program. Is the goal to play the markets or to divert the maximum amount of material from the garbage?
The second step is to conduct an audit of waste and recycling activities. Designing a recycling program is impossible without knowing about the materials moving through facilities.
The third step is to stop referring to these recyclable materials as garbage. Managers who consider handling recyclable materials the same as handling garbage are headed for trouble. From now on, managers should think about recyclable materials as commodities — maybe misplaced, but commodities nonetheless.
