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Conducting a Waste Audit in Your School
How to Complete the Waste Audit
Step 1: History Lesson
Gen an idea of the current waste generated at your school. Review the
school's waste record for the past 12 months to determine.
- how much waste was produced
- how often the waste is collected
- what happens to the waste after it leaves the school
- what has been done so far to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste
Step 2: Take a Look Around
The audit will look at the type and amount of waste generated in each
area of the school. A building tour will tell you where you school's
waste is produced and some of the reasons why. The tour may
identify.
- places that generate a lot, a little, and average amounts of waste
- places of recycling activity
- custodial routines
Step 3: Making Plans
Based on the information gained in the building tour, the structure of
the audit can be determined. The amount of waste and the period of time
over which it has collected has a drastic effect on the accuracy of the
audit findings. No two weeks of an operation are exactly alike. It is
important to select an audit sample which captures as many functions as
possible. Audit design and preparation will include:
- where the waste is produced and where it will be sampled
- how much waste will be generated
- how much waste will be sampled
- when the sampling will occur
- who will conduct the audit
- what equipment and space will be needed
Step 4: Getting Down and Dirty
During the "hands on" stage of the audit, waste is sorted by hand to
determine its composition. It is very important to carefully label all
materials at this point to determine their source. This is also an
excelling time to collect additional information about common
contaminants or specific packaging which can be reduced. In this
hands-on stage you will:
- gather all waste and recyclables designed for weighing
- label and weight all bags
- hand-sort materials and place them into individual waste-stream
categories
- note contaminants in recyclable stream (ie. paper in the metal can
recycling bin and vice versa)
- record findings and any observations
Step 5: What Does It All Mean?
After the raw data is compiled, you can determine:
- how much waste is generated per year
- the waste composition
- how much material is diverted through 3Rs activities
- how and why the waste is generated
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