Think strategically about waste
Too many New Zealand businesses are literally throwing millions of dollars away because they don’t think strategically about the waste they create, according to a sustainable waste management expert. Fionna Gotts, CEO of the sustainable waste management company Junk Run, is calling on businesses – consignment of brand new, high-quality point-of-sale displays, still in their unopened flat-packs. The eight-tonne consignment was enough to solidly pack a large shipping container and had originally been bought at a six-figure cost. The company did not care what happened to the displays; it just wanted them gone. Junk Run reallocates as much of the waste it collects as possible to charitable partners and other environmentally sustainable channels. What was a good outcome for the recipients, represented a huge waste of money for the company that bought the displays. While this might be one of the more extreme examples, Gotts says in a media release that the company’s attitude was typical of many that she sees. "Too much of what we're paid to take away are poor-quality products that haven't lasted – the classic false economy trap. Businesses also miss the chance to re-use items elsewhere in the enterprise. It’s common for us to be handling products that have never been used." The waste problem, she says, often stems from penny-pinching procurement practices that neither consider whether the purchase is necessary in the first place, nor joins the dots on what happens to items throughout their life-cycle. Gotts says most businesses would save themselves many thousands of dollars – even millions by:
