The manufacturing industry accounts for more than 18% of the world’s total goods each year - with the U.S. sector generating approximately 7.6 billion tons of industrial solid waste. While the true cost of waste to a manufacturing company can be between 4-5% of your COG’s, it can often reach as high as 10%.
Between raw materials, residuals and the expense of labor, your waste budget can quickly add up, including hidden costs if you’re not proactive with auditing your waste invoices. Fortunately, when done correctly, the waste reduction potential for manufacturing sites can easily reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars, just by implementing the waste reduction opportunities with the highest ROI.
Learn how a trusted waste partner like NWA can use our 200+ years of collective industry experience to help optimize your solutions, significantly reduce your operating costs, maintain compliance, and enhance your public brand image.
Minimize Waste to Maximize Profits
Waste minimization is an often-overlooked opportunity for significant cost savings across industries.
Perhaps one of the most important steps a manufacturing facility can take in optimizing waste solutions is source reduction; auditing the plant’s processes from start to finish and identifying areas where waste can be reduced or eliminated in the first place.
Understanding what types of waste are being generated and their volume is key to this process. The most successful manufacturers know that once these reduction opportunities are realized, the audits should be recorded so baselines and improvements can easily be tracked and adjusted for future optimization.
Besides source reduction, implementing efficient inventory management - only buying and stocking the material you absolutely need at the time - as well as redesigning your product packaging are also key strategies for waste minimization, among others.
We realize it can seem overwhelming to deal with this in addition to your traditional workload. That’s why waste solutions should be our problem, not yours. Our waste experts can help your facility drive significant operational cost savings. We are different from other waste providers as we continuously analyze your waste streams on an ongoing basis to discover the best strategy for protecting your profits.
Manage Residuals Responsibly to Save Money and Enhance Your Brand
Adhering to environmental compliance regulations for waste disposal on local, state, and federal levels is crucial as improper disposal can lead to serious implications for both manufacturing companies and their communities.
Whether you’re dealing with residuals, byproducts or waste generated from cleaning out your facility’s equipment, you should look for recycling and reuse opportunities for these discarded materials wherever possible.
Environmental sustainability should also be prioritized with strategies such as pollution prevention and zero waste techniques. Doing so is simultaneously beneficial to both your bottom line and your public facing image.
Our industry experts recognize this importance due to the growing popularity of corporate strategies like ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance). The advantages of partnering with a waste solution company who cares about the future of your manufacturing business goals are significant.
Our team has an in-house compliance manager to help ensure you’re adhering to regulations. In addition, we are a provider of green waste services with a team of certified advisors who have implemented sustainable programs that boast best-in-class recovery rates.
Use the Right Tools to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Costs
When’s the last time you evaluated if the size and types of waste equipment you’re using at your manufacturing facility are giving you the best value for your dollar? Don’t let this opportunity for both cost-savings and enhanced workflow efficiency go unnoticed.
It’s no secret that the manufacturing process generates a substantial amount of waste, even just on a daily basis. Implementing techniques like load optimization and right sizing your waste containers give your company the power to maximize average tons per haul as well as reduce hauling costs, pick-up frequency, and emissions.
Since many manufacturing systems were designed before the concept of waste minimization, it’s important to upgrade your process equipment, in addition to waste containers. This can include redesigning equipment to reduce losses during batch changes or during cleaning and maintenance, changing to mechanical cleaning devices to avoid the use of cleaning solvents, and installing more energy and material-efficient equipment.
The goal is to choose the equipment that will generate the best ROI in the shortest amount of time, with the technology that is most easily adoptable by your crew.
These seemingly mundane service factors will truly add up when you take the time to audit your process. In fact, our team at NWA was able to save one manufacturing company almost $1 million a year by doing just that. We’d love to discuss how we can do the same for you.
We Know Manufacturing Waste
Read about the waste problems facing manufacturing companies and how NWA can help.
Optimize Your Manufacturing Company’s Waste Solutions
If you would like to learn how NWA can help optimize waste management for your manufacturing company, contact us today to set up a time to talk with us.