The National Waste Strategy

The government's White Paper on a strategy for sustainable waste management within England and Wales- "Making Waste Work" gives the waste hierarchy giving each of the waste management options in order of desirability. (Figure 1). This provides a good basis on where to begin thinking about waste management and minimisation.

Figure 1: Waste management options in the waste management hierarchy

There are many ways by which a company can implement a waste minimisation strategy and some suggested examples are given below. The company may wish to devise their own.

Suggested strategies to minimise waste

Certain aspects of implementing a waste minimisation strategy are likely to be site and plant specific, although some more generic approaches can be applied.

Generic techniques for waste minimisation can be listed as:

Managing inventories and improving operations

  • Listing and tracking all raw materials on site
  • Buying less hazardous materials
  • Introducing training programme and communication from management
  • Improving practices such as dealing with inputs of material, handling and storage

Undertaking modifications to equipment

  • Choosing equipment that generates little/no waste
  • Improve equipment in order to make recycling and recovery more feasible/possible
  • Promote efficiency through looking into the existing design of production lines/equipment to reduce waste
  • Implement a programme of preventative maintenance

Changes in production processes

  • Change, where feasible all hazardous substances for non hazardous
  • Implement a programme of waste segregation
  • Prevent leaks and spills and check site regularly for thus
  • Utilise raw materials more efficiently

Reuse and recycling

  • Identify opportunities for waste exchange (the DTI's UK Environmental Business Club Directory is a good source for companies/clubs undertaking exchange of wastes)
  • Identify all opportunities for in house recycling for reuse
  • Identify all opportunities for external recycling for reuse

The main factors characterising a waste minimisation strategy are given below.

The core elements of a waste minimisation strategy