Waste Reduction: Part 2
In our free second waste article we ask you to consider the link between purchasing and waste.
Do all departments in your business closely interact and effectively communicate regarding purchasing decisions?
Do they consider the from an environmental perspective the whole lifecycle* of the products that your company purchases and not just the purchase price?
Product life-cycle should consider as appropriate the source of the raw materials, manufacturing processes used, packaging (including disposal), distribution, use and potential for reuse, and end of life disposal of the products.
What your business buys has, surprisingly enough, an effect on how much waste you produce.
Good practice is to ask yourself the following questions,
Do I need to buy it?
Are we buying more than we need? Bulk buys are not always the best deals.
Are the goods heavily packaged?
Are packing materials associated with the purchased goods reusable, recyclable and easy to dispose of? How do you get rid of polystyrene infill beads in boxes of goods received for example?
What is the cost of waste disposal associated with the purchase you are about to make?
We hope you found this content useful.
Look out for the next instalment regarding Waste Costs.
(*For those of you with ISO14001 Clause 8.1 (b).)
