Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Creative Ways Manufacturers Can Decrease Waste

factory by a river

In the dynamic landscape of modern manufacturing, the mantra of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is more than just a catchphrase – it’s a strategic approach that can revolutionize industrial processes. By incorporating these principles, manufacturers not only contribute to environmental sustainability but also stand to significantly reduce costs associated with industrial waste. In this article, we will explore creative ways manufacturers can implement the 3R’s to enhance their practices and make a positive impact on both their bottom line and the planet.

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How to Make Your 2017 Mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

reduce, reuse, recycleWe are almost two months into 2017, and many people have given up on their New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you wanted to be more environmentally minded this year, but that mindset fell by the wayside in favor of other obligations. Is it too late for you to make the changes you wanted so badly last December? Not at all! We here at KenBay believe that the second best time to change your habits is today (the best time was yesterday). If you want to make 2017 your year of change, here’s a great mantra to live by: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Reduce

If you want to make an environmental difference at your plant, reducing waste should be one of your first priorities. How do you know the amount of waste you’re generating? A great first step is to examine your material flow. Look at what’s coming into your plant, how it is used, and how it leaves. Once you’ve identified the source of your waste, then you can take steps to reduce it!

Reuse

One great way to help reduce your waste is to reuse it! This can look like a lot of different things. Perhaps you can find alternative uses for the giant plastic bags your products come in. Or perhaps you can repurpose scrap metal instead of leaving it around (which, by the way, is a big safety hazard!) And remember, reusing materials doesn’t have to mean physical materials like plastic and metal. Resources like water and energy can also be reused. You can conserve on multiple levels!

Recycle

The last step in our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra is recycling. Interestingly, this is probably the first thing you thought of. And why not? Everyone knows about recycling. Improved environmental education has taught our children the benefits of recycling from a young age. But what is important to keep in mind is that before we can recycle, we must first reduce our waste and reuse what we can. How can we recycle? It’s actually easy — stop sending your waste into landfills! Landfills generate greenhouse gasses and can secrete chemicals into the earth.

Instead, send the waste you can’t reuse to a proper recycling facility. Additionally, look into whether waste-to-energy is a viable option. Waste-to-energy is an excellent alternative to traditional fossil fuels. You’ll reduce your waste and help our energy problem at the same time. It’s like an environmental double whammy!

Remember the mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It’s not to late to make these changes for 2017. One thing that can help you reduce waste more effectively? Utilizing the right kind of compactor. A KenBay RotoPac is portable, which means it can be stored at the source of the waste. Say goodbye to enormous compactors that take up half the room! Because our RotoPacs have a constantly rotating arm, your waste is continually pressed and tightened into a convenient cube shape. Cubes are great for stacking and hauling over to the recycling facility! If you are interested in purchasing a KenBay RotoPac for yourself, you can try it before you buy it. If you enjoy the RotoPac, you can even pay to keep the one we send you. Change is possible this year, and KenBay can help.

3 Proven Ways to Cut Costs when Recycling Plastic

recycling plasticThe folks here at KenBay like to talk about recycling, zero waste, and reducing landfills. We also like to talk about saving you money! Look, we get it — you want to be environmentally conscious. Maybe you make sure to recycle in your own home and teach your children about the importance of doing so. When it comes to your business or your factory, however, finances have to come first. Hey, you’d like to recycle more, but everyone knows that with the high cost of labor, transportation, and treatment, it’s simply far more cost effective to send your waste to a landfill instead of recycling plastic. If it only cost a little cheaper, you would definitely recycle more, right?

While the cost of recycling plastic is definitely higher than dumping it, the fact remains that landfills are nothing more than a temporary solution. In fact, after decades of the practice we are only just now thinking up plausible ideas for how to make a landfill sustainable. Until those ideas become a tested and proven reality, recycling and reusing are the best methods for reducing harmful emissions and fighting against climate change. If you need some ideas for how to recycle without putting your company into the red, here are some ideas from KenBay.

Reduce Labor

A big portion of the expense of recycling plastic comes from the extra labor required for handling and transportation. Usually, you need to hire extra hands and have specialized equipment for separating and moving your recyclables. One method to reduce costs this way is to reduce the need for that kind of labor! Use a small portable compactor instead that can be easily moved and handled right at the site of your waste. Just toss the plastic in, and stop worrying about it!

Make the Most of Your Trucks

Now if every step in the recycling process could be handled on site, how easy would that be? But the reality is, you do still need to send it to another facility, which requires paying for transport costs. If you’re already paying for it, make sure you get the most of your money! Ensure that your plastic is compacted into a convenient cube shape to reduce the amount of air hauled on the truck. Remember, you are paying for volume, not weight! Through compacting as much as possible, you will always get the maximum value out of recycling plastic, and you’ll have to make fewer trips overall, saving you money!

Research and Promote New Recycling Methods

One of the best ways to reduce the cost of recycling plastic is to find and encourage innovative thinking. A company in Mexico did that last year when it discovered a new (and cheaper) method. They now have a pending patent application for their new method! Encouraging and promoting ideas like these may lead to revolutions for the way we recycle plastic, and savings for everyone!

Use KenBay for Compacting and Savings

KenBay’s line of RotoPacs provide the portable and effective cost-cutting solution that you’re looking for. We have a wide variety of compactors which can be used right on site to handle any kind of waste right then and there. If you are interested in trying our a KenBay RotoPac, we offer the opportunity to “Try it Before you Buy it.” We send you the compactor, and if you decide it’s right for you, simply pay to keep the one that we sent! And remember, for recycling plastic or any of your other waste management needs, you can do it and save money as well!

 

 

How Environmentally Conscious are You with Handling of Waste?

One of KenBay’s mission statements is to operate with zerenvironmentally conscious venn diagramo waste and encourage others to follow suit. Zero Waste means that our company is committed to reusing and recycling our resources and will not send any waste into a landfill. We partner with other organizations who share the same philosophy — and there are many of us out there! We also work to educate others on the responsibilities of being an environmentally conscious company through efforts like this blog! So if you’ve ever wondered about how or why you need to consider the environment more in your processes, keep reading.

Zero Waste: The Positives

First, I want you to understand exactly what you have to gain by switching to environmentally conscious practices. Altering your wasteful processes reduces costs, attracts new environmentally conscious customers, and improves your organization’s sustainability. This article from the Queensland government website in Australia does a great job breaking down how these benefits come about. Also, if you think about it, you are unlikely to lose any customers specifically because of your environmentally conscious practices. So, with the opportunity to help the Earth and lots of great benefits for you, is there really a reason not to go green?

How to Get Started?

If you agree that sustainable practices are the right way to go, you may be confused about where to begin. Like other new practices, the internet is both your greatest tool and biggest frustration. In this digital age, you can find whatever information you need right in your own living room. An entire wealth of information is more easily accessible now than  at any other time in human history. Fantastic! On the other hand, the internet is overly saturated with information everywhere you turn. Which is the correct way to go green? What are the most effective methods? How do you even get started? Ultimately, you need to thing of your company first and choose what is best for its needs. However, we can tell you that a great resource to turn to would be a company who is committed to an environmentally conscious philosophy. A company that has extensive experience putting that philosophy into practice.

Hey, wait a minute!

Tips from KenBay

Imagine that you are playing a board game and you begin with five points. You must keep all five points in order to be a fully environmentally conscious company. Obviously, points are subtracted for dumping waste in a landfall or a pond, but there are other more subtle ways to lose them as well. If you are trusting (without verifying) another company will sort your waste for recycling, you lose a point. If you aren’t recycling items because there is is product inside the plastic, you lose a point. If you steer away from super sacks because you don’t know how to deal with the empty sacks, you lose a point. You get the picture.

You keep points by keeping track of your product and all the items which make it up, from the minute they enter your factory to the moment they are recycled. One great way to help be environmentally conscious is to use compactors with KenBay. KenBay provides portable compactors that leave a small footprint at the site of your waste. You can compact your waste into small, easy to transport cubes to send off to the recycling center. If you want to experience the KenBay difference, you can try one of our compactors before you buy it. If you like the compactor we send you, you can just pay for it and keep it for good! You can be an environmentally conscious — and KenBay can help!

3 Benefits to Incorporating Dewatering Into Your Waste Management

Dewatering

We here at KenBay believe in 100 percent zero waste when it comes to waste management. That includes how wastewater is handled. Dewatering is a process which removes liquid sludge from solid waste. This allows the water to be treated, recycled, and reused. (If you would like a more in-depth explanation about how dewatering works, this website has an excellent summary.)

Not everyone considers dewatering to be a viable option. Many factories and plants worry that the costs of labor, equipment, and maintenance outweigh any potential benefits of dewatering. Some simply do not consider the environmental impact. Many of these corporations choose instead to store their wastewater in holding ponds. Unfortunately, holding ponds are far from an ideal solution. Ultimately, there is a financial cost for dewatering, but the benefits are absolutely worth it. Dewatering helps the environment, the local area, and you!

Dewatering Less of an Impact on the Environment

Let’s start with the most basic benefit: your responsible handling of wastewater will be better for the environment. You will be helping to recycle one of our planet’s natural resources. You can actually use that recycled water for whatever you need to. Others can use it as well! You are not the only production facility that needs to use clean water. If others have access to it, then their productivity increases. Yours increases as well! And better productivity means a better local economy.

Dewatering Makes Your Waste Easier to Manage.

Extracting water means your waste weighs less. Less weight makes the waste easier to transport. Transport where, you ask? Many of you probably assumed a landfill. But KenBay is committed to finding new ways to utilizing waste without resorting to landfills. We prefer turning waste into clean energy. And guess what? Dewatering also makes your waste easier to incinerate.

Ultimately, You are Paying a Cost Anyway.

Too much water in soil can actually be a bad thing. When left for too long, still water can corrode the foundations of buildings. The threat of corrosion is worse the older a building is! If you find yourself in this situation, you will need to pay the cost of repairs. Additionally, as noted above, untreated sludge water will costs more to store and transport, because of its heavier weight.

Finally, if you are found responsible for any environmental hazard, you will ultimately have to pay to help fix it. Not to mention, the cost PR to fix your facility’s damaged reputation. Ultimately, if you are going to pay a cost, why not make the choice that is better for our planet and your local area? Who knows, your sterling environmentally friendly reputation may actually drum up more business than before!

We hope you see the advantages of switching over to dewatering. You may be paying for it now, but ultimately the benefits far outweigh any costs. You will provide a great service for your local community, the planet, and ultimately yourself. If you are interested in other ways you can help properly manage waste, check out KenBay’s website. We offer convenient on-site compactors that make managing waste easier. You can request a free 14 day trial offer!

4 Reasons to Make Reuse a Priority in Your Waste Management

ReuseIf you are trying to reduce your waste, one of the easiest things you can do is find things that are easy to reuse. With a little bit of effort, you can significantly reduce many of your waste streams with simple reuse protocols based around sorting, cleaning and storing. There are many things, like manila envelopes and plastic containers, that are determined waste that can be useful instead of thrown out. By taking the effort to save and reuse whatever you can, you will save the company from having to purchase as many as it would otherwise. There are also many opportunities to sell used goods to other companies who can use or recycle them, creating a passive income for your company.  

4 Benefits of a Habit of Reuse

  1. Save Money
    When you reuse things throughout your business operations you will undoubtedly save money in many ways. Not only will you spend less on purchasing what you have decided to reuse, but you will also save money on waste removal as you significantly diminish a waste stream. When you open your mind to the idea of reusing things you will undoubtedly begin to think more creatively about the waste you’re creating. If you want to further reduce your waste removal costs, consider purchasing a commercial trash compactor.
  2. Build Partnerships
    Another common oversight is the opportunity to find a partner in your community who would consider something that is your waste to be a valuable resource for them. Turn to your community to find partnerships like this and you just may save money in buying things you could get at discounted prices, on trade, or completely free. Not only will the habit of reuse challenge you to think more creatively about your own waste, but also about that of your partners throughout the community.
  3. Zero Landfill Initiative
    The zero landfill initiative is an ideal that many organizations and governments strive for, and the practice of reuse is central to achieving it. If you haven’t yet considered how you can contribute to this admirable common goal, a waste audit and habit of reuse are great places to start.
  4. Encourage a Charitable Community
    Many things go in the trash that could be incredibly useful to other organizations in your community. Teachers, for instance, are constantly short on supplies they need for the classroom, and some of your garbage could serve as great craft supplies or even paper products they might need for schoolwork. Don’t give in and let things get dumped at the landfill when you could be directly helping your community with what you might now be deeming trash. If you can’t reuse it yourself, chances are someone else can. Furthermore, this kind of outward-facing thoughtfulness is a great way to get your employees more engaged in their work as they aim to make it part of something bigger than themselves or even the organization, but about being a service provided to their local community.

If you haven’t yet made the habit of reuse a norm in your organization, it’s time to start working towards this goal. Begin by educating your employees on some simple changes they can make, then give them the freedom to find their own solutions to reuse in order to reduce waste streams. If you are looking for further waste management help, give KenBay a call to see how we can help you.

The 5 Best Ways to Reduce Carrying Costs of Trash and Recycling

Trash and RecyclingTaking care of your trash and recycling is not only a big job when running a business, but can also be a costly one. There are countless ways to reduce the costs associated with the trash and recycling handling, while simultaneously building a more sustainable business. Whether your main waste streams are in packaging or food waste there are simple ways to alleviate your removal costs.

5 Ways to Reduce Carrying Costs of Trash and Recycling

  1. Educate Your Employees
    The process of reducing the costs surrounding your waste management and trash and recycling hauling specifically begins with education or re-education. Once you have been caught up on all the latest policies, technologies and methodologies, begin to make a plan and spread the information throughout your company. Host informational meetings and find the people in your employ who are passionate about the cause. Use signs to help people remember what they’ve learned about your new waste management direction.
  2. Reduce Waste
    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 know where to move from there in your goals to make less waste.
  3. Reduce Packaged Inventory
    One waste stream you can almost always reduce no matter your industry is in packaging. Consider your purchasing practices and how you might cut down on the amount of packaging waste you produce. Packaging can come in many forms from cardboard to shrink wrap and ends up as both trash and recycling.     
  4. Reuse Whatever You Can
    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 yet another passive income for your company.  
  5. 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 for your company, as well as many more when you choose the one that is most suitable for you. With many different sizes and specialities, there are commercial trash compactors for every purpose waiting to prove their worth in 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.

When companies put time, energy and money into considering how they can implement better practices for their trash and recycling handling, they are not only improving their business operations but are giving back to their community and oftentimes they’ll save money doing it. While the immediate costs and initial investments might not seem worth it, the long-term savings and improved public relations are undeniable.

If you are looking for a waste management consultant, be sure to call KenBay to learn more about our expertise.

 

Improve Safety and Reduce Costs When you Reduce Waste Removal

Waste RemovalWaste removal is something business owners don’t often consider since they aren’t responsible for doing it. Oftentimes when paying for a service, especially from the city, it’s easy to forget that, and the end of the day, we have a stake both financially and in terms of safety in our waste removal. By seeking ways to reduce waste you will necessarily find ways to improve safety in your workplace, as well as save money not only in removal, but also in countless other ways you may not even realize are opportunities.

Start With a Waste Removal Audit

Whether you’re doing it in-house or working with a company like KenBay to perform a waste removal audit, this is the first step in finding ways to improve safety and reduce waste removal costs. Commit to assessing every part of your processes and operations that produce waste and consider how you might be able to cut back on waste in those circumstances. There are often things that can be recycled that are going into the waste can. Another common oversight is the opportunity to reuse things yourself, or find someone in your community who would consider something that is waste to you a valuable resource for them. Turn to your community to find partnerships like this and you just may save money in buying things you could get at discounted prices, on trade, or completely free

A waste removal audit will also give you an opportunity to take a good hard look at how much waste you are actually producing over all. What does your huge trash bin look like at the end of the week? Is it overflowing, or could it go another week without being picked up. Find solutions either way that will help you reduce waste removal costs. Trash compactors are always a great option, whether you’re on one extreme or the other, allowing you to reduce the size of your waste, and therefore the costs associated with removing it.

The Overflow of Audits

The nice thing about performing a waste removal audit is that you will look at waste collection and removal as a whole system throughout your business. You will start to consider how you can streamline this process that before may not have seemed a significant part of anything at all. When you start to reason about where your waste cans are placed, and whether they are in the most strategic and best places, the safety and cleanliness of your workplace will undoubtedly improve. Trash compactors are a helpful addition, allowing you to ensure that your waste is never unruly and unconfined. Waste cans are overlooked hazards by either being constantly overflowing, or placed too close to vents and heat sources. The safety of your employees will increase while your liability decreases when you start to consider your waste removal.  

You will never know if there are improvements that can be made if you don’t take that first step in performing a waste removal audit. Get started and don’t hesitate to call in the KenBay troops for some expert advice and help in approving upon your waste removal practices.

Count the Ways You Can Save When you Rethink Trash Removal

Trash RemovalTrash removal doesn’t have to be the dreary topic it presumes to be, especially when you start to think outside the box and consider the bigger picture. So many good things can come from rethinking your trash removal and all the things associated with it. If you have yet to reassess your business or home waste management practices, then take some time to consider the amount of waste you’re producing and where it’s going. There are some very simple ways to get started in completely making over your waste removal standards, be it at work or home.

Find Your Waste Removal Devotees

Chances are there are people in your midst who are already secretly playing the goal of garbage police, taking it upon themselves to monitor the trash can even if it is unofficial. These are going to be your go-to people in beginning the transformation of waste removal in your business, and will keep the entire project from falling on the shoulders of ownership and management. Bring a team together around the common goals of reducing waste to both save the company money on hauling costs and by recycling, as well as giving something back to the community like less pressure on your local landfills.

Where is Your Waste Coming From?

The first place to start in remaking your waste removal strategy is to figure out what your waste consists of. The easiest way to do this, especially if you’re in a large facility, is to take on a weakly waste audit challenge. Checking your waste at the end of each day will give you a much better idea of where in your production the most waste is coming from. When you know where your garbage is being produced, you can then consider ways to reduce its creation and therefore waste removal as well.

Recycle Anything You Can

Many recyclables go completely overlooked, or are simply more convenient to throw in the trash for lack of a nearby recycling bin. A great place to start in reducing your waste is to vamp up your recycling program through first, education and second, logistics. Make sure you and your employees are aware of absolutely everything that can go in the recycling. Then make sure that there are always visible recycling bins around. Cardboard is a huge (quite literally the largest volume of waste created) culprit of recyclable goods ending up in landfills, and is usually easily avoided with the right measures in place.

Reuse or Regift

A lot of your waste, you will find, may not be recyclable but might still have some purpose or use for another business in your area or perhaps a local junk collecting store for all those DIYers out there. It could surely take some extra time to get this project going in full force, but it will also help your business build ties with the community around it, and potentially give an employee an exciting new job to take hold of.

Don’t underestimate the power of reducing your waste removal costs by taking these few steps seriously. If you want to do even more you can call KenBay to learn about our state of the art trash compactors and how we can help you improve your waste management practices.

Save the Planet When You Minimize Waste Removal

Minimize WasteDid you know that 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste is shipped to landfills in the United States each year? That’s a lot of garbage. What’s your contribution to that number? Although it is just a tiny fraction of those billions of pounds of waste being produced in this country, everybody can do their part to decrease the growing landfills in America by taking a few small steps to minimize waste, no matter what industry you’re in. Not only will your efforts to minimize waste be of great service to the environment, but they will also have financial and social benefits as well.

Here are some simple ways to minimize waste production:

Establish a Waste Management Team

If you don’t already have people in your place devoted to helping you minimize waste in your industrial facility, that is a great place to start. Be sure to find a group of like-minded people who are invested in pursuing the fiscal, social and environmental benefits to less waste production. Self-starters who are generally trusted in the workplace will be perfect to spur on the team mindset you need to get your employees educated and motivated around this common goal. Your new waste management plan will set standards within the workplace for what waste is and how it is handled.

Waste Mapping

Make sure that your facilities are as logically organized as possible so that you can easily identify all materials and waste products. Have your team work on optimizing all your workflows and spaces so that production and materials are easily defined. This will help you to analyze where you can cut out processes that might be producing excess or unnecessary waste. A better-ordered work environment also means that your waste will be more easily segregated for removal, which is one of the best ways to cut down on removal costs. Better workflows will also help your employees be more productive, and spend less time dealing with waste, which in turn will increase your productivity levels, and decrease payroll losses.

Recycle Reduce Reuse

Take advantage of the fact that the current workforce was raised on recycling. All you need to do is give them the specifics of which waste products can be recycled and how, and they’ll return to old habits. All you have to do is set up a convenient system and you’ll be saving money while you minimize your waste. If there are any waste products that can simply be cleaned up and reused, it can often be worth the time to do so. Don’t assume that it isn’t worth looking into it.

Do your research and make informed waste management decisions. It’s the only way you’ll manage to minimize waste in your facility. Companies don’t achieve close to zero waste by staying the same. They have to innovate and get creative by changing things up, challenging their employees, and putting in some extra leg work to see where improvements can be made. In the long run, they’re helping more than just their wallets.   

If you want to learn more about waste management methods that will work for your business, call KenBay to learn more.