KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid):

Grab your notepad and a floor plan. Walk systematically through your business, from office to office, sales floor to back room, service area to restroom. Be certain to go to every room.

As you walk, you will stop at each garbage can (you may be surprised how many garbage containers you have), make a note of what materials are in each garbage can (see the prepared list below marked KIS for assistance).

Last stop is the dumpster. Look inside. Ignore the matching bags and scan for large items, construction materials, fixtures or something else that was taken directly to the dumpster. There is also the chance that you may notice illegal dumping- bags or items that did not come from your business.

Put down the notepad and grab the garbage bills for the last 12 months. Most businesses are billed monthly, some quarterly. Record the cost, the size of your dumpster and the number of collections per week. If you generate more waste at certain times of the year, your bills should reflect this because your costs are higher when you require more collection service.

KIS Sample Format

On the left side of the page, under location, write the type of room or area you are in at the time you observe a container (for instance: office, sales floor, storage room, break room, restroom, dock, etc.) Place a "/" in the appropriate box each time you observe waste material.

Sample:

Location	Mixed Paper	Newspaper	Cardboard	Aluminum	Tin Cans	Plastic	Pallets	Other	Food or Waste
Break room		/				/			/
Restroom	/
Office			/	/					/

 Make a note of what materials you observed the most and target those for recycling.

Dumpster Measurements

Dumpster Size: ____________________________
(2-yd, 4-yd, 6-yd, 8-yd, 20-yd, 30-yd, 25-yd compactor)

_______(Regular Number of Weekly Collections)  + ________(Total Number of Special Collections)  = __________(Total Annual Collections)

_____________ ( Total Annual Collections)  X  ____________ (Dumpster Size)   =  ______________(Annual Yards of Waste)

What material caused the need for additional collections? ______________________________________________________________________

KISS Waste Composition Breakdown

Utilizing your Annual Yards of Waste you can use this simple percentage based breakdown chart for initial waste composition assumptions:

	Office	Retail	Food/ Entertain	Service	Commercial	Manufacturer	Industrial
Mixed  Paper	29.9%	5.4%	12.5%	16.3%	15.6%	21.5%	17.2%
Newspaper	6.8%	3.0%	4.9%	4.0%	4.8%	0.7%	4.1%
Cardboard	8.3%	19.1%	10.5%	11.4%	11.3%	4.6%	5.1%
Aluminum	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
Tin Cans	0.5%	0.3%	0.7%	0.6%	0.6%	0.5%	0.3%
Metals	2.7%	1.5%	1.7%	4.6%	2.5%	1.3%	3.4%
Plastics	6.6%	10.8%	5.6%	6.9%	6.7%	4.1%	5.9%
Glass Jars	1.4%	0.5%	2.5%	0.3%	1.6%	0.2%	0.4%
Pallets/Wood	6.6%	4.1%	1.4%	4.2%	3.2%	40.0%	27.1%
Textiles	4.2%	7.5%	0.0%	1.9%	2.0%	1.2%	0.4%
Yard waste	2.7%	1.1%	1.3%	3.6%	2.0%	0.5%	0.7%
Food	3.0%	20.9%	38.1%	7.4%	23.2%	5.0%	3.9%
Other	27.1%	25.6%	20.7%	38.7%	26.4%	20.3%	31.3%
Total %	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*KISS is NOT conclusive, it provides estimated annual numbers only.

 

Using the last 12 months of bills, determine your annual costs for service.

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
$	$	$	$	$	$	$	$	$	$	$	$

Total Annual Cost:____________________________