Last week saw the seventeenth – seventeenth, blimey – meeting of the Corporate Sustainability Mastermind Group at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (an amazing venue, see above). Due to a couple of members being called away at the last minute, we postponed our proposed topic of maximising the value of accreditations, and did a series of short sharp sessions on topics that were bothering those in the room. The first of these was ‘waste’ and I thought I’d share some of the learning points arising:

• Understand your waste streams, volumes and disposal routes
• The true cost of waste is 10-30x disposal cost – and it ramps up from goods in to goods out as value is added
• Use the 80:20 Rule – go for the big issues first eg product damaged at the end of the process
• However, need to be cognisant of ‘iconic’ waste streams such as coffee cups. They may not be significant in practice, but laypeople often believe otherwise
• General societal culture change in domestic recycling helps with recycling at work
• Because it is tangible, waste can be used as an effective ‘entry drug’ for wider employee engagement for Sustainability.
• Make sure reducing waste is always incentivised eg in tenancy agreements
• Involve employees in developing waste solutions – you get better solutions and buy in
• Don’t empty recycling bins containing ‘wrong’ materials – makes the point very clearly
• Make segregation easy and use a standard colour/logo scheme
• Seeing somebody have to sort out mis-segregated materials can lead to a positive guilt trip (eg show the consequences)
• Educate employees including understanding the benefits (eg £ per bag)
•  Be careful with Waste Transfer Note terms & conditions – you could be signing an ongoing contract
• Supermarkets are particularly good at waste reduction from suppliers – much to learn from them
• Reduce ‘bought in waste’ from suppliers
• Lean manufacturing techniques target and eradicate waste
• Order dimensions and quantities carefully to avoid waste
• Construction Site Waste Management Plans may not be legally required by law any more, but you can still insist on them in construction projects
• Can use objective-oriented procurement and forward commitment procurement to drive innovation in waste management services