Guide to running a program targeting hard to recycle items

Special waste initiatives divert products that are not easily or traditionally recycled from landfill, such as:

• hard plastics
• plastic grain bags
• e-waste
• shells from food waste
• soap
• cigarette butts.

It is important to consider all of the following steps on your path to success. For special waste stream initiatives, we have highlighted several key capabilities that are worth further consideration. They may provide more challenges and opportunities along the way.

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Phase one: Scope and plan

Establish a baseline community need

Learn about your landscape by understanding your:

• employees
• volunteers
• waste collection partners
• business partners who have a use for your waste.

Find out their:

• knowledge and buy-in of the circular economy ideals
• attitudes and behaviours to purchasing and recycling goods.

You will be better able to run a suitable program that matches skills with resources if you understand other organisations in this field and how you will differentiate yourself.

You should consider where your streams of waste are coming from, and how you get them to you. And you should understand the economics and logistics of collections to build a viable business model.

Plan your program

Think about what kind of activities will match your community’s need. Articulate what drives you to help connect others to your vision. Then you can think about the activities that will help you achieve it.

These are the kinds of things other specialised waste stream programs do:

• Arrange a collection system for waste that doesn't normally go into recycling bins (like cigarette butts, fishing lines and bottle tops). This requires careful planning.
• Assess and sort items depending on end use.
• Run workshops or a production line to turn material into new products, or divert to a manufacturer who will.
• Run a store or a stall to sell items.
• Send waste to partner to repurpose.

Set your boundaries

To help you refine the scope of your program you should consider what you have the capacity and need to run. Understand the equipment and facilities you can access. This key capability will determine your business model.

You will also need to consider relevant industry requirements for your waste stream. For example, initiatives working with plastic food containers must comply with food safety standards.

Think about what sort of arrangement would work best for you. Whether you run pop-up workshops or decide to run a permanent factory or warehouse, you should take into account:

• having a space that is safe, usable, secure and accessible. It needs to be well ventilated if working with certain wastes, such as plastics
• having adequate and hygienic space to store collected waste
• the preferences of your local demographics, and your location
• having an accessible shopfront, if sales are part of your plan, including online or market stalls
• the demand and need for specific end products
• the availability of employees and volunteers.

Manage risk and maintain Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs)

Assess your risks

Understand the risk profile of your intended activities and take steps to mitigate risk through:

• appropriate insurance
• disclaimers
• management processes.

Mitigation could include:

• volunteer training
• induction
• registration or certification.

Understand your agreements

MOUs are the agreements you have with your key partners such as business donors and volunteers. They are useful in establishing clarity around everyone’s roles and responsibilities to help you minimise risk and build productive partnerships.

To ensure compliance, you should make sure your staff and coordinators are aware of any contractual and MOU arrangements relating to their facilities, tools and equipment.

Design activities to change behaviours

The aim of specialised waste recovery is to encourage behaviour and systems change around waste. Think about how all aspects of your public interactions contribute to this goal.

Think about how to best showcase your work. You might find it easier to sell your services through demonstrations and workshops rather than selling your product. Some other programs also operate on membership fees, paid by people who want to use your equipment.

Your organisation could:

• teach people to value their waste and put it in the right receptacle
• educate the community about responsible waste management
• work with venues, retailers and manufacturers to adopt more sustainable processes so you can capture as much waste as possible
• change purchasing behaviour – for example, buy smaller amounts and only use what you need
• attend community events to increase the awareness of your services
• use education resources to promote the above – for example, workshops and posters.

Try to design your engagement activities, programs and initiatives in a way that allows you to evaluate their usefulness and effectiveness in impacting behaviour change. This will also help you demonstrate your value to key stakeholders, including funders.

Phase two: Implement program

Run an efficient program

Most specialised waste recovery programs operate on thin margins, so careful administration of resources is important.

You might consider:

• building a streamlined system to assess waste as it arrives. This minimise the pressure on your program
• building a cost-effective collection system that covers multiple venues that your workforce can manage.
• managing stakeholders and corporate partners to ensure relationships are equally productive.
• understand your stakeholders and their needs
• using customer relationship management (CRM) software to communicate with your stakeholders. Not-for-profits can get discounts and/or free software products from Microsoft and Google.
• a system to record by weight or volume the amount you are saving from landfill. This will demonstrate your value
• developing a business and marketing plan, and a budget.

Look after your assets

Most programs also rely on specialist machinery to process their waste steam. It is important to:

• have a good relationship with your machinery supplier
• take your time
  
• recruit volunteers with relevant technical skills
• have maintenance schedules to avoid costly repairs
• be aware of what might void warranty in your core pieces of equipment
• design a streamlined process so that you get the right materials in the right form. For example, washing and sorting lids by hand is time consuming. Ask donors to donate their lids already washed. Your use of language is important to get people to ‘value the resource’. It helps if you have a champion in the donating organisation who can advocate the importance of properly washing or filtering the waste, so they make an effort to package and sort correctly before donating.

Engage diverse communities

Consider the most appropriate platforms for your programs and whether or not you plan to target certain groups – different demographics in a community use different media types. If you know the demographic profile of your community you can improve information about events and disposing of waste effectively so it's accessible to groups like migrants and refugees.

Set your team up for success

Your team is key to the success of your program. That is why this whole section is a key capability.

Ensure that your staff and volunteers have the appropriate training processes and access to manuals and resources.

When engaging volunteers, have clear position descriptions that outline their:

• roles
• responsibilities
• required skills.

Think about the needs of the volunteers and staff who deal with businesses and households. Consider what guidance your team may require to supply the right waste stream.

It is also important that you think about:

• your insurance requirements
• what workplace safety requirements you may need for your staff and volunteers when they transport and process the waste stream.

Circular collaboration

Special waste programs are more effective when they work together. Consider your peer special waste initiatives as a supportive and informative network that can help you achieve your shared circular goals.

Think about how you might be able to promote collaboration with each other. For example:

• help each other with consistent messaging
• share knowledge of public event opportunities
• provide local support to broader education campaigns.

Your program will be much stronger and more likely to achieve results if you identify opportunities for partnership with existing organisations, such as:

• local government
• state government
• schools
• local retailers and manufacturers
• op shops
• neighbourhood houses.

Phase three: Evaluate and improve

Use your learnings to make improvements

Program managers do well when they think about how they might improve future practice. This might mean sharing knowledge gained during the day with your team or debriefing later with other programs and providers. It could mean developing case studies for best practice.

When a new or unexpected donation issue arises, think about ways you can record or document the solution so that they can be repeated or applied elsewhere. Set up an easy-to-use document management system, so that everyone can all access information quickly. There are free document management systems that you can use, such as Google Drive and OneDrive.

Funding and business obligations

You need people on your team who understand finance and the obligations of running a business. Complement strong business and finance knowledge with good financial systems that help you to understand quickly how your organisation is performing so that you can respond appropriately.

All programs rely on fundraising, grants and donations, so this will become an important part of your activities.

Financial viability is important to all special waste programs, so think about ways you can encourage this. For example:

• be aware of funding opportunities from philanthropic organisations and different levels of government
• put a price on waste from donors, especially corporate donors
• record data and track stock to communicate its value and show the quantity of goods you’ve saved from landfill
• teach your volunteers and staff to write grant applications
• set up ways to encourage donations
• set up a commercially viable product with a realistic price point.

Case study

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