What if we told you that diverting food waste from landfills helps reduce pollution, lower methane emissions, and optimize resource utilization? What if we also told you it can help your business gain a competitive edge, reduce costs, and attract environmentally conscious consumers?
All things considered, landfill diversion is important for both environmental health and long-term business growth. However, part of gaining these benefits is achieving a great waste diversion rate, which can be done by implementing innovative waste management strategies.
Keep reading to learn how to calculate your landfill diversion rate, why it matters, and common challenges and tips to overcome them.
Key Takeaways
- A landfill diversion rate is the percentage of waste generated that is prevented from going to landfills.
- The formula for calculating your waste diversion rate is as follows: Waste Diversion Rate = (Weight of Diverted Waste / Weight of all Waste) X 100
- Having a good waste diversion rate promotes cost savings, environmental benefits, a better company reputation, government incentives, and profitability.
- After calculating your landfill diversion rate, you should create a strategy to improve sustainability efforts. This includes setting realistic benchmarks, implementing waste prevention and reduction strategies, and tracking and reporting waste diversion success.
What Is Landfill Diversion Rate?
A landfill diversion rate, also referred to as a waste diversion rate, is the percentage of waste generated that is prevented from going to landfills. This can be achieved through various waste management strategies, including composting solutions for businesses, food waste-to-energy conversion, or other recycling solutions.
By tracking recycling efforts, businesses and communities can better understand how much waste they divert from landfills and whether they need to improve their diversion rate to achieve sustainability goals.
Waste Diversion Rate vs. Recycling Rate
Though they may be similar, waste diversion rates and recycling rates have key differences:
- Waste diversion rate: A waste diversion rate is the percentage of waste diverted from landfills, using various methods to reduce environmental impact.
- Recycling rate: A recycling rate specifically measures the percentage of waste that is recycled out of the total waste generated.
Sounds pretty similar, right?
While there is some overlap, the key difference is that waste diversion rates go beyond just recycling methods, including any approach that diverts food from landfills.
Food donations, for example, are a great way to give back to your community while diverting food from landfills, meaning they contribute to your company’s waste diversion rate. Since food donations are not considered recycling, however, they would not be counted towards your recycling rate.
How to Measure Your Waste Diversion Rate?
Before we discuss how to calculate your waste diversion rate, let’s look at 3 key steps that can simplify the process.
- Tracking Waste Streams: Companies that track their waste streams gain valuable insights into where organic waste is generated and can better identify ways to improve operational efficiency. That said, an effective food waste tracking system identifies sources of waste, measures the amount of food wasted, and analyzes the data.
- Waste Audits: Waste audits help you identify waste sources and quantities, thereby helping you implement more effective food waste prevention strategies. By performing these audits regularly, you can track the success of your waste reduction initiative.
- Recording Data: Keeping detailed records of your food waste data helps you identify inefficiencies and supports informed decision-making. To achieve this, companies can implement a standardized tracking system, categorize waste sources, use digital tools for real-time data collection, and analyze trends to identify reduction opportunities.
How to Calculate Your Waste Diversion Rate
All companies should know how to calculate their landfill diversion rate, as it helps them measure the effectiveness of their waste management program. That said, the formula for calculating your waste diversion rate is as follows:
Waste Diversion Rate = (Weight of Diverted Waste / Weight of all Waste) X 100
- Weight of diverted waste: This is the total weight of waste diverted from landfills through composting, donations, anaerobic digestion, or other waste management solutions.
- Weight of all waste: This is the total amount of waste that your company generated over the specified period of time.
Let’s take a look at an example to better understand how this works.
Let’s say a company donated 500 pounds of food and composted 1,000 pounds of food. If their total waste generation was 2,150 pounds, their waste diversion formula would look like this:
Waste Diversion Rate = ((500 pounds donated + 1,000 pounds composted) / 2,150) X 100
Waste Diversion Rate = 69.7%
What Is a Good Waste Diversion Rate & What Should Businesses Aim For?
“Good” is a very relative term regarding waste diversion, as diversion goals depend on industry type, waste volume, and available waste management options. Without a universal target, companies should first calculate their current diversion rates and set realistic goals.
For instance, let’s go back to the example above, where the company calculated a 69.7% diversion rate. Now let’s say they set a goal to raise this percentage to 80% in the next year.
If a year passes and they don’t reach their goal—or worse, their percentage decreases—they will know they need to evaluate and adjust their strategy to meet their company-specific target.
Why Is a Good Waste Diversion Rate Important?
From cost savings to an improved company reputation, there are various incentives for achieving a good waste diversion rate:
- Cost Savings: Many companies are surprised to learn that implementing waste management strategies can actually save them money. By increasing landfill diversion, your company can reduce landfill disposal fees and optimize waste streams, thereby lowering operational costs.
- Environmental Benefits: Food waste is a huge environmental concern. That said, diverting food from landfills helps mitigate some of its consequences, including pollution and methane emissions from landfills.
- Carbon Credits: Carbon credits, which are permits that allow companies to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide, are highly beneficial for companies. How do they work? Essentially, landfill diversion helps reduce methane emissions, which can qualify businesses for carbon credit programs. These credits can be used to offset emissions or sold, providing an additional financial incentive for sustainable waste management.
- Strengthening Reputation as a Sustainable Business: Businesses with high diversion rates can improve brand perception and attract eco-conscious partners and consumers, thereby supporting long-term growth.
- Government Incentives: Tax incentives encourage businesses to donate fit and wholesome food to qualified nonprofit organizations. This drives donation efforts while providing a valuable incentive to businesses of all sizes.
- Driving Profitability: Businesses that track their waste, perform waste audits, and improve their waste management strategy gain better insight into optimizing operations and reducing resource waste. This helps them improve overall profitability.
I Know My Landfill Diversion Rate, Now What?
After calculating your landfill diversion rate, you should create a strategy to improve sustainability efforts. There are 3 key steps to accomplishing this:
- Setting Realistic Benchmarks: As mentioned, each company must set a waste management target depending on their unique goals. When establishing targets, there are external factors that should be considered, including industry standards and legal requirements. Based on this information, your company can set realistic benchmarks and identify short- and long-term goals.
- Implementing Waste Prevention & Reduction Strategies: To achieve specified goals, you must create a waste prevention and reduction strategy that addresses company-specific challenges and compliance requirements. When you partner with a waste management company like Shapiro, you can access tailored strategies that optimize your diversion efforts.
- Tracking & Reporting Waste Diversion Success: The next step is to keep detailed records of your waste diversion efforts, which can then be used to showcase successful sustainability initiatives. This documentation can also help you identify areas for improvement, making it an important part of your strategy.
Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them
There are common obstacles businesses face when calculating and improving their waste diversion rate: This includes:
- Data Accuracy Issues: Do you rely on manual recording methods? Do you often notice inconsistencies in your waste diversion data? Unfortunately, this is a common issue for businesses, making it difficult to assess progress and identify areas for improvement.
- Solution: In today’s technology-driven world, there are digital tools for almost everything. By investing in digital waste tracking tools, you can automate data collection and reduce human error. Working with a professional waste management company is also a valuable solution, as they provide detailed waste audits and reporting.
- Staff Training: Company-wide changes can lead to confusion regarding waste sorting and updated procedures. That said, inconsistent participation can lead to contamination of waste streams, reducing the effectiveness of diversion efforts.
- Solution: Company leaders should educate their staff on the importance of waste diversion and provide hands-on training, so workers understand how to support waste diversion goals.
- Fluctuating Waste Volumes: Seasonal food waste, supply chain shifts, and operational changes all contribute to fluctuating waste volumes. This makes it difficult to maintain a steady diversion rate, especially for companies in the hospitality, agricultural, retail, and food production industries.
- Solution: Companies must plan for seasonal variations to improve waste management strategies. By maintaining detailed records and using advanced inventory systems, your company can improve demand forecasting and prevent waste at the source. Partnering with an experienced food waste management company also ensures you can easily adjust your strategy to meet changing demands.
The Bottom Line
Landfill diversion rates are a valuable metric for companies to understand how much waste they prevent from going to landfills. By investing in sustainable waste management solutions, your company can drive profitability while reducing its environmental footprint.
To streamline efforts, maintain compliance, and increase operational efficiency, we recommend partnering with an organic waste management company like Shapiro.
At Shapiro, we’ll work closely with you to create a tailored solution that meets your unique needs.
Contact us today to learn more about our organic waste management services.
Baily Ramsey, an accomplished marketing specialist, brings a unique blend of anthropological insight and marketing finesse to the digital landscape. Specializing in educational content creation, she creates content for various industries, with a particular interest in environmental initiatives.
