Once you’ve discovered the advantages of outsourcing your company’s recycling management, your next step is to decide if it’s the right choice for you and your company. After all, it’s a business decision, and at the end of the day, businesses are, for the most part, judged on their financial performance. However, this is beginning to change as consumers place an increasing emphasis on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues. Nevertheless, cost is a very important factor. And unless your title is Recycling Manager and recycling is your primary responsibility, then you will want to read on.
Recycling has many benefits and the list of those advantages continues to grow. But the two that stand out currently are reduced costs and a positive company or brand image. Most manufacturing plants and distribution centers have someone tasked with managing recycling efforts. In the past, this role may have simply been about anyone with a passing interest in recycling and/or a few extra hours each month in their schedule. Today, I challenge anyone to find that person with a few “extra hours” in their schedule.
Companies look for a return on investment (ROI) on any initiative. Unless your company has placed a dollar value on recycling, your job is going to be to bring in more revenue or reduce more expenses than the cost of the initiative. The question then becomes, at what point does bringing in outside help make sense? This generally comes down to a question of time and money. Put another way, what does your company want and how soon do you want it? And how do you reach these goals as quickly and efficiently as possible, balancing your two most important resources time and money?
This is where outside experts can make a difference. These experts can help you reach your goals faster and at a lower expense than adding one more item to an already packed schedule or hiring another person to manage the process.
If your facility has a waste and/or recycling budget of greater than $150,000 (e.g., $75K cost and $75K revenue or any combination thereof), then your plant is very likely a candidate for the benefits of outsourcing. This is because improvements of about 20-25% typically exist in these cost/revenue centers simply because when compared to other utilities, waste and recycling are much smaller. And more often than not, these line-items are rolled into larger spend categories and “fly under the radar” for years.
If you would like to learn more about how outsourcing your company’s recycling management can benefit your business, contact Cumberland Recycling! We’d love to discuss how to help you reach your business goals faster!