By any means, waste management isn’t a big thing when you are starting a business. It is the last thing in your mind. You are too focused on developing products, finding a niche, hiring employees, looking for the right location, and starting a marketing campaign. You barely think about the waste your business will generate or even how to dispose of it properly.
But in many states, you need to present a fool-proof waste management plan before you can get a business license. You have to make sure the local waste management department handles the kind of waste that your business will generate. If not, you have to find a waste management company to help reduce, transport, and dispose of your waste.
How Should You Choose the Right Waste Management System?
Before you pick a waste management company, you must first understand what kind of waste your business generates. Is it commercial or industrial waste? Commercial waste comes from trade, business, education, recreation, and entertainment sectors. On the other hand, industrial waste comes from agricultural, residential, medical, environmental, and manufacturing sectors. Handling industrial waste is different from managing commercial waste.
If you are producing industrial waste, you need to look for a company that has the right training, expertise, and equipment to handle the waste your business generates. Waste management companies use industrial recycling balers to better transport the waste they collect from their clients. This is a standard in the waste management sector because it compresses the waste so that it can be transported to recycling and waste treatment facilities easily.
What About Municipal Waste?
Smaller businesses produce municipal waste. This means that the local garbage collection system can collect and dispose of this kind of waste. If the waste your business produces will fall under this designation, you can enter into an agreement with your local municipal waste management office. However, if the waste your business generates is more than what the local waste management can accommodate, you have to coordinate about its collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal. This is why determining the kind of waste you produce is important.
Types of Waste
What are the common materials that waste management companies should handle and remove? The types of waste vary from industrial to commercial to property waste. As you choose a waste management company, you must also look into the kind of waste that your business generates.
- Liquid Waste. Does your business produce liquid waste? How much? Not all kinds of liquid waste can be processed in municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Some can lead to the contamination of the water supply. If your business uses solvents, chemicals, and other harmful contaminants, you cannot simply flush this down into the municipal pipes. You must dispose of it properly.
- Hazardous Waste. If you are in the medical field, you are producing hazardous waste. Municipal waste management systems cannot handle this type of waste. You have to choose a company that doesn’t only have the training and expertise, but the right equipment and tools, too. While there are tried-and-tested formulas to manage this type of waste, you can also look into more modern ways of handling hazardous waste.
- Construction and Demolition Waste. Recent data showed that construction and demolition waste make up 40% of the waste in landfills. When they are not properly disposed of, they can fill up landfills and cause problems in the disposal of municipal waste. Even during a simple renovation of your store or office, you have to make sure the contractor you hire has proper waste management systems in place.
Can Proper Waste Management Help Businesses Save Money?
It will cost money to hire the services of waste management companies. But in the long run, the proper disposal of waste will save you money because waste management is more than about removing waste from your business site. It’s also about reducing the waste your business generates and financial responsibility.
In the past, plenty of businesses faced lawsuits and got their licenses and permits revoked because of a failed waste management plan. You can work with a waste management company to put a sound and cost-effective plan in place. This will save your company from embarrassment and from needing to pay penalty fees.
If you are planning your startup right now, make room for a waste management plan. It doesn’t seem important when you’re in the first phase of the business development process. But when you don’t plan for this, it could lead to catastrophic problems for your business.