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The Business of Recycling – WRAP
Guidance for Offices
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Monitoring recycling services in Office settings

Monitoring your Office's recycling performance

Estimated reading time: 3 min

There are a number of things you can do to work out how successful your recycling efforts are. These include:

Check the bins

Arguably the simplest way is simply to check the recycling bins regularly, looking at what’s being put in them and how full they are. You could assign monitoring duties to particular staff (such as cleaners), who can also let you know if you have the right type and number of bins and whether they’ve noticed any .

Complete another waste audit

Follow the instructions in Step 2 and complete another  waste audit, comparing the results with your initial audit to see the progress made. This is particularly important if the types of waste your business produces have changed; this could happen if you begin using new products, diversify your business or if your business is affected by seasonal factors such as ​​Christmas (which may mean waste volumes increase).

Remember, a review audit differs slightly from the initial audit you completed in Step 2. The initial audit is an overall study to see all the waste and recycling your workplace is producing, helping you plan the service you need. A review audit should measure how much you’re now recycling, whether there’s any contamination in it, and what’s left in the waste bins that could have been recycled. This will help you decide whether you need a different service, whether you need to communicate with your staff and provide further training, or perhaps refresh your public communications and messaging.

Use waste transfer notes and/or tonnage information

and tonnage information provided by your waste contractor are a quick way to see how much your organisation is now recycling. You can compare these with information from your general waste provider before you began recycling.

Compare the before and after costs

Recycling should save you money, so by comparing the costs of your old waste management service and your new service you should see whether you’ve reduced your costs.