Examine your waste outputs and you will discover some interesting opportunities for savings. A recent event gives a good example…
Sig. Other: “I can’t find my driving license”
Me: “When did you last have it?”
Sig. Other: “At the supermarket…I think I might have thrown it away with the receipt….”
Me: “Did you double-check your purse”
Sig. Other: “hmmmph”
And so began an interesting evening. The cashier at the store had not, per my hope, kept the license by mistake and we were faced with the prospect of sifting through the trash-can at the store exit in the vain hope that we would find said license. Now my initial thought was that this would involve getting covered in gum, soda, banana skins and other discarded gems from the general populus. This was not the case however for two reasons…
- the store personnel decided that since it was on premises they couldn’t have a customer sifting through trash (I LOVE that policy)
- and here’s the main point, the ‘trash’ appeared to comprise entirely of discarded receipts.
As they replaced our ‘license’ bag with a fresh one so that a deeper analysis could be done in the store office in private, I stayed back and watched the now empty trash-can. Now I admit, this is not ‘normal behavior’ but normal behavior is what has gotten us into our high consumption and inefficient way of life.
Here’s the checkout process (which I admit, isn’t that interesting)….customer selects goods, teller scans them in, teller asks whether they have a ’store card’, card gets scanned, goods packaged, and paid for. Customer takes a receipt, typically about 2-4ft in length, scans it for about 1/2second and then, wait for it, throws it in the trash. I’m not sure what information is gathered during the 1/2 second scan but whatever it is, it’s enough to convince the customer that they no longer need the receipt.
Now to be fair, not all customers do this – some keep the receipt – it’s a small sample but 1 out of 8 do. That one person also had a store card so my thinking is that they are quite involved in the purchasing process. If you don’t have a store card, my sample showed, you’re not really bothered about receipts. Kind of makes sense if you think about it.
So how could the store use this information? They are effectively printing 8 x 3ft of receipts so that one person can take 3 ft home. 21ft of waste.
“…but it’s recycled paper” I hear you say. Rubbish (!). It’s a waste of paper (recycled or not), ink, printing power as well as added distribution and disposal expense.
Now, if you’ve taken the time to fill out a store card application, you’ve probably filled out an email address – the store ‘has you’ on record. Why can’t they just default to emailing you the receipt (and those pesky coupons)? If someone insists on their receipt, the teller just pushes the ‘burn the planet button’ on the till and one can be printed.
Think about it, you then have electronic record of all your purchases, the next time you shop, the teller can apply whatever coupons you had in your electronic ‘coupon box’ and you don’t need receipts. No trash to be collected and disposed of either. Now I am no expert on the number of paper rolls a typical supermarket goes through but I’m guessing it’s not trivial. I bet there’s a good payback on implementing this system. You could take it a step further, start a company, receipt.com, that manages all store card receipt handling for all chains…. but now I’m digressing.
Analyzing waste streams is a profitable exercise and can also give you great insight into your operational efficiency. If you know what’s in your waste, you can determine where it came from. It’s a flashing arrow to a process that says ‘potential savings here’ or ’something ain’t working properly please HELP’. My supermarket has their receipts, an industrial furnace might have unburnt methane in their combustion gases or, if you want to get closer to nature, you might have something going on in your own waste streams that have their own ‘presentable features’. Knowing about it means you can act….the supermarket chain goes electronic and in doing so, creates further opportunities for competitive advantage and reduced expense. The industrial furnace operator realizes his burners aren’t working properly, overhauls them, saves fuel, reduces GHG emissions and improves efficiency. Your doctor examines your ‘waste stream’ to conclude that there are tell-tell signs of a stomach ulcer, which, you’ve guessed it, were probably obtained while sifting through public trash cans. You get the right treatment as opposed to popping Tums all day long. In all cases, a change in behavior leads to a more sustainable way of operating.
It doesn’t take a huge effort to do this – observation can be the first step to reduced waste, improved efficiencies and a better way of doing business. Encourage your workers to do this and you’ll be surprised by the potential benefits that arise.
Oh, and what about the lost license? Well, turns out it somehow made it into a different section of the purse and never came close to the trash-can…hmmmmphh!
