Page 149 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

STEP 2: EXISTING RECORD REVIEW 127

■ Container purchases (desk side and workroom floor receptacles)
■ Communication funds (newsletters, banners, posters)
■ Travel funds to visit top performing sites for benchmarking
■ Meeting refreshments (if desired)

Several approaches exist when creating the budget. For example, project start-up
funds could be allocated by management and spent at the team’s discretion.
Management could allocate $1000 to $10,000 for the items listed above and empower
the team to best utilize the funds. Many successful companies have taken the approach
that no additional dollars will be allocated to the project. The team is given the base
budget of the previous year’s solid waste removal and recycling costs for a start. The
team must then creatively use this same budget to reduce the environmental impact of
the organization. All expenditures would be cost justified based on return on investment
and available funds in the budget. This approach is generally preferred by management,
because no additional funds are needed and the outcome of the project at a minimum
will be breakeven for the organization. As a first step in reviewing previous waste removal
records, the team determines the budget by calculating last year’s expenditures. For the
case study example, the team was given $4000 by executive management to cover tools
and program start-up costs.

8.3 Step 2: Existing Record Review

Reviewing the existing organizational records for solid waste and recycling usually
provides significant insight into the amounts, types, and patterns of waste genera-
tion. Very useful data and information can be gained to help focus the efforts of the
team and eliminate the need for the collection of existing raw data. Collecting high-
quality records will save a great deal of time, money, and effort versus raw data col-
lection via a trash sort or facility walk through. The types of records to collect
include

■ Purchasing, inventory, maintenance, and operating logs
■ Supply, equipment, and raw material invoices
■ Equipment service contracts
■ Repair invoices
■ Waste hauling and disposal records and contracts (including 1 year of amounts and
fees collected)
■ Contracts with recycling facilities and records of earned revenues from recycling
■ Major equipment list
■ Production schedule (representative of a year)
■ Company brochure or product information
■ Material safety data sheets (MSDS)
■ Facility layout (hard copy plus CAD copy, if available)
■ Process flow diagrams