If your facility generates hazardous waste, you should consider strategies to reduce or eliminate its generation. By reducing hazardous waste, you can save time, money, and headaches. How, you ask? Three simple steps: inventory, segregate, and save.
The first step is to inventory your waste steam. The easiest way is to create a spreadsheet and identify the wastes from your operations and insert them into a table format shown here. Some examples of typical wastes generated at postal facilities include regular trash, used oil, spent antifreeze, spent inkjet ink cartridges, cancellation inks, used batteries, used lamps, old Advanced Facer Canceller System (AFCS) lamps, outdated electronics, aerosol cans, spent solvents, filters, shrink wrap, ballasts, and sharps containers, to name a few.
Once you have created an inventory spreadsheet of your own waste streams, it’s time to segregate them into categories. Create four columns across the top of the table and label them Solid Waste (Trash or Recycle), Universal Waste (recycled), and Hazardous Waste (managed). Put an “x” in the column that corresponds to the waste designation of the waste stream (see example spreadsheet below).
Now that you have the information, the next step is to save money by making sure these wastes are not comingled. For example, shrink wrap can be recycled instead of trashed. Electronic wastes (e-wastes) must be recycled instead of trashed. In the case of vehicle maintenance facilities, one way to reduce waste is to substitute solvent parts washers with a higher flash point to make your parts washer solvent nonhazardous. If you go through this tried and true process, you’ll be surprised at how much waste can be avoided!
Contact the Facilities Services Category Management Center staff for assistance with recycling and waste contracts. See also “Begin Recyling Now” on pages 13–14.
