Waste Exchange Services – Lower Your Waste Disposal Costs

Most people are becoming more aware of reusing and recycling waste.  It helps protect the environment and can help reduce your waste disposal costs.  But are you aware that there are businesses and individuals who actively look for waste materials?

Ones mans muck is another mans brass as the saying goes.  Waste exchange services and schemes operate to this principle.  Materials that are waste to your business or household can be really useful to someone else. 

Waste exchange services and schemes give the opportunity to individuals and businesses to advertise their waste so other people can claim it.  They also allow businesses and individuals to advertise for products wanted.

Using a waste exchange service gives you the opportunity to make sure as much of your waste as possible is re-used.

I first came across the principle of waste exchange almost 20 years ago when I worked in chemical manufacturing.  I had just come back off my maternity leave, which for some reason my employer at the time was not expecting.  My job was no longer there, but they couldn’t just “get rid” of me. 

At the time the waste regulation laws in the UK were undergoing a dramatic change.  Introduction of special waste regulations and duty of care now meant that the cheapest waste disposal option was not the best.

Waste disposal costs were going through the roof and the paperwork needed to move waste had doubled overnight.  My new job was waste disposal that conformed to the new up and coming regulations.  I thought a budget of almost 2 million was excessive, until I started and realised it was nowhere near enough!

By chance I saw an advertisement for a waste exchange service and a request from another business for an acid that we produced as a by-product of manufacturing.  The business was prepared to pay transport costs and buy the waste if it met specification.  The waste product now turned a small profit rather than a small fortune in waste disposal costs.

There started my love of waste exchange.

The benefits of waste exchange can not be expressed enough.  It is estimated that the cost of waste disposal to businesses is approximately 4.5% of turnover.  That’s a big chunk of money coming off the bottom line.  And it will continue to rise as waste disposal costs rise.

On an environmental level, waste exchange services keep waste out of landfill sites.  We all know that landfill sites are rapidly filling up and we just do not have the space to open enough to keep up with demand.  Additionally, even the best engineered landfill sites produce harmful gases and waste water.

Using products obtained through a waste exchange scheme also saves on raw material costs.

Waste exchange services and schemes for businesses are often advertised in trade magazines.  It is also easy enough to find a waste exchange scheme on the internet. 

Waste exchange services are run regionally, nationally and even internationally.  Some waste exchange schemes specialise in business waste only from particular trades others are available to individual householders.

What Type of Waste Can I List on a Waste Exchange Service?

The type of waste accepted by a waste exchange service depends on who the scheme is catered for.  You’ll be surprised at what can be listed though.  Waste products from packaging, to potato peel; hazardous waste to end of line hair nets.  You name it and you will find it in a waste exchange scheme at some point.

Waste exchange services accept waste products, by-products, end of line stock, obsolete products and individual household products.  The internet makes the world a small place, search online and find a waste exchange service that is suitable for you.