How to conduct a waste audit for the education sector

Estimated reading time: 5 min

A waste audit is a hands-on review of the different types of waste your organisation produces. It can be conducted at a high level, for example reviewing all waste for a building, or at a more detailed level, for example reviewing waste per department or building area- such as canteen and kitchen for example.

If you prep and serve food on site, or students bring in food to be eaten on site, it is likely that some food waste will be generated. To find out more about identifying, measuring and reducing food waste in your kitchens and canteens, visit Guardians of Grub.

The idea of a waste audit is to identify where waste is generated in your organisation. With this knowledge, you can take steps to reduce it and ensure your organisation complies with legislation concerning waste handling, storage and disposal.

Undertaking a waste audit will help you to establish:

What types of waste your establishment produces
Where waste is generated across your setting – whether for the whole building or for each department or area
Who generates waste in your establishment

Once complete, you can then develop a waste action plan with your priorities and targets for reusing, recycling and recovering your waste.

Good to know
Your existing waste or recycling , if you have one, may be better placed to undertake the audit process for you – especially if your waste may include items that could cause an injury, such as broken glass sharps, clinical waste, or potentially from laboratories or other educational sources.

There are a number of options to carrying out a waste audit – the one you choose will depend on a number of things such as how much time you have to conduct the waste audit and whether your students will be involved with the process or not.

This section provides two standard methods for conducting a waste audit:

Standard Waste Audit - which looks in-depth at the waste produced across your site or a specific area of it, and
Visual Bin Audit – which is a light touch approach with minimal to no waste sorting.

Standard Waste Audit

This waste audit is suitable to be carried out by staff members or students in Key Stage 4 and above. It is likely that some students may need to be supervised and you should include consideration of this within your risk assessment.

To conduct your waste audit, start by downloading the Waste Audit template.

You will need:

A tarpaulin or plastic sheet to tip waste out onto for sorting
Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) as identified via a risk assessment (to protect you and your clothes)
Containers for sorting the waste into
Weighing equipment
A pen to record your findings
Your waste audit template

1. Conduct a risk assessment

You should produce a risk assessment before undertaking a waste audit to ensure that you’ve considered and mitigated all risks, such as those entailed by manual handling. Ensure that all relevant colleagues are properly briefed on the task before starting the audit, including your Health & Safety officer or team. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland has some useful information and resources on conducting office-based risk assessments and an example template that can be downloaded.

Additional care should be taken if your waste is likely to contain sharps, clinical waste or potentially from laboratories or other educational settings.

2. Collect your waste

Gather your waste, including general waste, all recyclables, kitchen waste and waste from litterbins, if applicable.

3. Sorting

Tip the waste onto your tarpaulin or plastic sheet and sort it into the different material types using your sorting containers. Use the waste audit template as a guide when deciding the number of different material types.

4. Measuring

Weigh each type of waste, remembering to deduct the weight of the container to arrive at the net weight of the material.

5. Recording

Record the date, time and location of your audit and the weights of each material on your form.

6. Repeat twice

Where possible, it’s a good idea to repeat the audit (steps 2-5) twice more (three times altogether) and average your totals. This will provide a more accurate picture of the types and quantities of waste and recycling your organisation produces.

7. Calculate your results

Using the average net weight for each material stream, calculate your annual waste and recycling total. Calculate your annual waste production, for example by multiplying by 52 if you have measured by the week.

What happens if I can’t complete a standard waste audit?

If you can’t complete a full waste audit, you could opt for a visual bin audit instead. This is a simple and effective way to assess whether the bins in your setting are being used correctly. You simply look into each bin and report on what you can see at the top of it.

A visual bin audit isn’t a replacement for a full waste audit, where all waste is tipped out, sorted and weighed, but it can be useful if you’re short of time and space. To complete your visual bin audit, just follow these easy steps:

1. Choose the number of bins to audit and their location. If you have a small or medium-sized setting, audit each different waste stream you currently collect, such as general waste, dry mixed recycling, paper, cardboard, and food waste. If you’re short of time or your setting is large, or has multiple sites, audit a sample of bins instead of all of them. For example, you could audit just five indoor general waste bins and five outdoor general waste bins, combined with five recycling bins from other areas of your setting.

2. Audit the bins as close as possible to bin collection time. You’ll need to speak to your cleaner, waste collector or facilities management team to identify the best day and times

Good to know:
Eco-Schools Northern Ireland provides a 7-step sustainability programme which includes resources and lesson plans for Early Years and older students. Step 2 provides an Environmental Review which includes reducing and managing waste and resources sustainably. For more information visit Eco-Schools.
Recycle Now Schools provides free classroom resources to support teachers and Key Stage 1 and 2 students to understand what recycling means, why we should recycle and how our actions can make a difference. The Resources link to the curriculum: PSHE, PDMU, The World Around Us, Language and Literacy and the Arts in Northern Ireland.

3. List what you can see at the top of each bin and record whether they’re in the correct bin or if your setting could do better at separating certain items for recycling and composting.