How to conduct a Waste Audit for the food and drinks manufacturing sector

Estimated reading time: 5 min

A waste audit is a hands-on review of the different types of waste your business 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, site or process area. To find out more about identifying, measuring and reducing food waste in your business, visit Guardians of Grub.

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

Undertaking a waste audit will help you to establish:

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

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.

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 .

2. Collect your waste

Gather your waste, including general waste, all recyclables, kitchen or catering waste from canteens and staff break rooms, and waste from litterbins, if applicable. Keep these materials separate from each other during your audit. Collect food waste in a suitable container so you can weigh it.

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 business 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.

Tips for carrying out your waste audit

Choose the right location and date(s) for your audit – the best time to undertake it will be the day before your waste is collected
Secure a suitable area for opening waste sacks and containers and sorting the waste materials
Keep your audit dates secret so that employees won’t change their behaviour and skew your results, but make sure that cleaners and facilities staff know so they don’t empty the bins.