Waste Awareness

The key to successfully reducing, reusing and recycling your business waste is to make people aware of what they can do and why it is important.

Providing waste awareness will help everyone in your business to understand the importance of rethinking the way they dispose of waste at work. It will help them understand how they can make a difference when new reduce, reuse and recycle initiatives are introduced, ensuring that as much waste as possible is diverted from the general waste bin and at the same time minimising contamination of recycling bins.

An added benefit of being waste aware and understanding and identifying where waste occurs is that it allows your business to identify cost savings. Employees frequently have excellent ideas about how to reduce waste from everyday tasks or operations and can therefore assist in reducing waste further.

Waste awareness can be taken forward in a number of ways including clear signage on recycling bins, information provision about what is happening and regular updates on how your business is doing. Many businesses appoint a 'Waste Champion' who can lead the way with waste issues, identify problems such as contamination and setting an example to the rest of the work force.

Perth & Kinross Council working in partnership with a number of other organisations offer a range of support to help your business become more waste aware. Awareness raising initiatives can be tailored to suit your business needs. This can include waste aware display and literature, as well as a presentation delivered during staff meetings or training session which introduces the importance of waste management, the problems of waste disposal and how we can all reduce, reuse and recycle. An online Waste Awareness Course has been developed by SEPA and introduces the main waste issues, it can be found at www.sepa.org.uk/nws/thenetwork.

If you would like our help to raise awareness of waste issues in your business please contact the Environment Services Helpline on 01738 476476.