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The Business of Recycling – WRAP
Guidance for Health and Social Care
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Planning your Health and Social Care recycling needs

What happens if I can't complete a Waste Audit?

Estimated reading time: 1 min

A visual bin audit isn’t a replacement for a full waste audit, where all waste is tipped out, sorted and weighed, but it can be useful if you’re short of time and space. To complete your visual bin audit, just follow these easy steps: 

  1. Choose the number of bins to audit and their location. If you have a small or medium-sized workplace, audit each different waste stream you currently collect, such as general waste, dry mixed recycling, paper, cardboard and food waste. If you’re short of time or your workplace is large, audit a sample of bins instead of all of them. For example, you could audit just five indoor general waste bins and five outdoor general waste bins, combined with five recycling bins from other areas of the workplace. 

  2. Audit the bins as close as possible to bin collection time. You’ll need to speak to your cleaner, waste collector or facilities management team to identify the best day and times. 

  3. List what you can see at the top of each bin and record whether they’re in the correct bin or if your workplace could do better at separating certain items for recycling and composting.