Could your company’s trash be another firm’s treasure?

Here’s a recycling idea that reduces waste disposal costs and can boost company profits too:
Selling your company’s trash to other firms.

The practice has has a fancy new name – industrial symbiosis (IS).

While some American facilities have been selling their trash for years, it’s booming among European manufacturers.

How it works: A company finds others in the market or its industry that want its waste. It’s easier than ever before with individuals and companies posting their needs online or through popular websites (think Craigslist and many like it).

The company then stores the waste instead of throwing it away in their Dumpsters. It can either pay to ship it or have the buyer pick it up.

Then the buyers use the waste, typically through their own manufacturing processes. (Find out how they’re using the waste first. Get it in writing – you don’t want to be dragged into an environmental violation if the buyer isn’t following waste laws.)

IS helps the bottom line too

A recent study by Concordia University found that companies in the United Kingdom were deriving multiple benefits through IS, such as:

•    reducing waste disposal costs, some by well over half

•    less need for storing waste and recyclable materials

•    boosting company profits, and

•    expanding some production areas and hiring more employees through increased profits and cost-savings.

Bonus: Studies show that employees and clients prefer environmentally conscious companies and will give green firms their business more often.

Could IS be an option for your facilities? It may be an idea worth looking into.