What Percentage of Your Logistics Costs Come from Waste?

If you are producing multiple tons of waste a week, logistics costs can start to pile up quickly. Landfills are filling up and many of them are even closing, leading to even higher logistics costs associated with waste because companies are left to ship it farther distances. When you are already paying for other streams of shipping throughout your business processes, it makes sense to spend less on your waste than you do, say, on shipping products to your customers.  If you have yet to consider how much you are actually paying in logistics costs when it comes to waste management, it’s time to crunch some numbers and get those costs down.

Waste Management

When it comes to lowering company-wide logistics costs, waste management is a great place to start. Many new business owners don’t consider that waste management is a thing to take seriously until they get that first waste removal bill. There are various streams of waste to consider when doing a waste management audit, and not just those associated with trash. You can also consider other areas of sustainability like energy and water use. Are there other valuable resources that are not being monitored and therefore producing waste besides the actual materials you are sending to the landfill?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Corporate responsibility necessitates that you manage your waste wisely by recycling and disposing of things like hazardous waste properly. There are many ways to reduce waste coming from your facility, and they all start with a proper audit of all your processes and the waste they produce. By auditing your waste consistently for a designated period you will discover where there are unnecessary or avoidable waste streams and can figure out where to move from there to reduce them. One waste stream you can almost always reduce is packaging. Consider your purchasing practices and how you might order things in a way that cuts down on packaging waste. Packaging can come in many forms from cardboard to shrink wrap and ends up as both trash and recycling.

Furthermore, there are many things that are determined waste that can be useful as opposed to discarded. Things like manilla envelopes and plastic containers can be easily stored for second use. There are also many options to sell used goods to other companies who can use or recycle them, creating a passive income stream where you would have been dishing out in logistics costs.  

Invest in a Commercial Trash Compactor

Are you looking to improve the sustainability of your business, as well as the safety of your workplace? Commercial trash compactors are the absolute best bet for achieving both of these goals. With many different sizes and specialities, there are commercial trash compactors for every purpose waiting to prove their return on investment. Not only can you improve the sustainability of your own company, but a commercial trash compactor will help you reduce the volume of waste that you are sending to your local landfill.

For more information about how the manage your waste in such a way that you will reduce logistics costs throughout your company, call KenBay.