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Drivers and Applications of Waste Management Data Points

While some may think of commercial waste streams as nothing more than a trash of various formats, in reality, they represent more than this. While they do include several types of waste, these streams also offer vital data points that can provide you insights in areas ranging from regulatory and operational to sustainability and overall finances.

At Enviro Care, we’re proud to offer several areas of assistance when it comes to waste management services, whether you’re looking to keep better records, meet compliance regulations more accurately, understand land disposal restrictions, or a variety of other related needs. What are some of the primary areas that drive data collection within waste streams, and which important elements of your business can be affected by these data points? Let’s take a look.

Drivers and Common Waste Categories

There are several specific drivers of the kinds of categories you should be considering within waste data collection. Several of these relate to regulatory requirements, which come from a variety of government organizations depending on your specific waste types. In addition, transparency in waste reporting is vital for everyone from investors and customers to rating agencies and other organizations.

With this in mind, a few of the most important waste-related categories you should be tracking include:

  • Weight of waste deposits
  • Number of hauls required
  • Whether the waste is hazardous or non-hazardous
  • Revenue generated vs costs incurred
  • Disposition method for waste (recycling, reusing, incineration, landfill, other)

Areas of Waste Data Use

So once you have the information above and are continuously tracking it, where can it be put to use? There are several specific answers here that will help you understand just how valuable this data can be:

  • Financial decisions: Once you understand the important data points related to waste, you can apply them to vital budgeting, auditing, and forecasting areas within your overall business. For many businesses, waste disposal is a huge budgetary area.
  • Regulatory: Waste data is very important for certain permits and other regulatory reporting, which can create several issues if not done correctly.
  • Sustainability: You can also use the data you’ve collected to set sustainability goals for the reduction of waste in certain areas. When you meet these goals, this is great information to share with customers and investors alike.
  • Operational areas: All data is good data when it comes to understanding the areas where you could stand to tighten up a bit operationally. This information will help show you the most effective waste tools in your business and the least effective ones.
  • Tracking: Not only can you track your waste trends against previous months and years, but you can also match them up against your industry as a whole and see how you stack up against the competition.

For more on the drivers of waste data collection and the areas where this is applied, or to learn about any of our hazardous waste disposal and transportation services, speak to the staff at Enviro Care today.