What are the biggest waste management challenges for businesses with multiple locations?

To navigate compliance, companies often engage in over-analysis and err on the side of caution when characterising and reporting waste, which can result in unnecessary compliance costs. However, the more accurate answer may have been available all along — through leveraging historical data and operational knowledge. The question remains: how do we extract that information and record the data so that it is accessible when you need it?

Coordinating with various waste vendors and multiple contacts within each vendor can lead to communication and data management complexities, increasing the potential for inefficiencies. Where is that contact information when you need it? And are the quotes fair by market value?

Preparing for audits can be cumbersome without proper data, raising liability concerns regarding whether waste is being sent to reputable facilities.

Every regulatory strategy and remediation approach must be tailored to address the unique issues or challenges associated with a given site. A portfolio typically becomes increasingly complex as it grows across asset types and regulatory jurisdictions. Managing waste with sound reporting data can help untangle how waste generators can address environmental liabilities and inform strategies.

Developing effective recycling and waste reduction strategies can be difficult without accessible data. Without accurately measuring and characterising waste, it’s complicated and time consuming to analyse the inputs and outputs, making it challenging to develop strategies to minimise waste.

Effective data management is crucial for both regulatory compliance and sustainability metrics. If companies aren’t getting the complete picture with details on the characterisation and amounts of waste, water use and carbon across their combined portfolios, it is difficult to establish meaningful metrics.

The common solution to these challenges is having historical data readily available to inform decision-making and expedite reporting. Many of these challenges can be solved or at least alleviated and streamlined with a good data management process and tools to analyse and automate waste management throughout business operations.