Monitoring your recycling performance

There are a number of things you can do to work out how successful your recycling efforts are. These include:

Check your bins

Arguably the simplest way is simply to check your recycling bins regularly, looking at what’s being put in them and how full they are. You could assign monitoring duties to particular staff (such as cleaners), who can also let you know if you have the right type and number of bins and whether they’ve noticed any contamination.

Complete another waste audit

Regular waste audits give you a snapshot of your recycling efforts across each different type of waste. You can compare the results of these with the audit you did initially, in Step 2, and see the progress you’ve made. This is particularly important if the types of waste your organisation produces have changed; this could happen if you begin using new products, if suppliers change packaging formats, you diversify your organisation or if your organisation is affected by seasonal factors such as Christmas or peak holiday periods (which may mean waste volumes increase).

It’s important to remember that a review audit differs slightly from the initial audit you completed in Step 2. The initial audit is an overall study to see all the waste and recycling your workplace is producing, helping you plan the service you need. A review audit should measure how much you’re recycling, contamination in your recycling, and what’s left in the rubbish bins that could have been recycled. This will help you decide whether you need a different service or need to communicate with or train your staff or refresh your public communications and messaging.

Use waste transfer notes and/or tonnage information

Waste transfer notes and tonnage information provided by your waste contractor are a quick way to see how much your organisation is now recycling. You can compare these with information from your general waste provider before you began recycling.

Compare the before and after costs

Recycling should save you money, so by comparing the costs of your old waste management service and your new service you should see whether you’ve reduced your costs.