FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
Fairview Facilities Management, Chief Operating Officer Venesa Coodien on how suppliers can help clients realise the value of waste
One particular area where there is opportunity to save money and add value, is around recycling and waste management. Our due diligence often reveals that a company’s recycling processes at each site are inadequate and that they are missing out on the opportunity to recover significant rebates.
Because they do not always have the time to expect their own staff to separate waste these clients may be paying companies to take waste away from their premises and facilities. Our on-site staff can separate waste for them, so that it can be collected by the correct recyclers. As a result, clients make money from their waste – sufficient to more than cover the cost of the process, because each month, for each waste stream according to tonnage, we receive a rebate from the recycler, which we pass on to our client.
Improving sustainability is the ultimate aim, but adopting processes and procedures to ensure correct separation and collection allows clients to understand and embrace the fact that waste has value.
Rebates can be achieved across all types of waste, from cardboard, through most plastics, to aluminium and steel, realising a previously untapped, viable revenue stream.
EDUCATION IS KEY
In every business, education is key to efficient waste management. When you get down to behaviour in common and rest areas, we still witness the tendency for people to see a bin and just throw waste into it, without considering what needs to happen next.
It’s important to provide the correct range of bins, appropriate signage and education. Encourage best practice by putting up posters which emphasise the importance of correctly separating waste and explain that by so doing, it has a value, bringing income, rather than incurring cost. In this way you can influence a change in the culture throughout a business, so that everyone plays their part in ensuring that waste is properly recycled and achieves its full value.
