There aren’t many truly free services in business that can help increase revenue, but one from Mid America Paper Recycling does exactly that. One of the largest independent brokers, processors and exporters of recovered paper in the Central U.S., Mid America offers a first-of-its-kind initiative focused on tracking and increasing the value of the recycling waste streams generated by large commercial printers and paperboard converters.
It’s a Waste Audit Survey, part of Mid America’s program that tracks and increases the value of the recycling waste streams generated by logistics firms, commercial printers, plastics and paperboard converters and others. The Waste Audit is also designed to educate Mid America’s customers and attendees about the hidden benefits of their recyclable waste.
“Our Waste Audit is a continuous improvement plan that sets goals and objectives that begin with a quick, free customer survey,” explains Mid America President Paul Pirkle. “We use it to tailor a continuous improvement process for each audit participant, identifying where their waste is generated, establish key collection procedures, and set objectives that continually improve their waste stream’s revenue contribution to their business. No other company offers as comprehensive and value-added a solution.”
Auditing your recycling program allows you to determine what you’re doing right and where improvements are needed. After Mid America audits your scrap and waste, it uses its vast industry connections to find buyers. That’s critical: the folding carton industry alone was valued at $128.28 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 4.4 percent in the forecast period from 2021-2026.
“One manufacturing operation in a containerboard plant can generate thousands of tons of pre-consumer, high-grade recyclable paper, production trim waste and paperboard waste annually, which in turn, can generate significant revenues for the company,” Pirkle point out. “Our Audit Process can help these operations realize significant revenues.”
Applicable to companies from small and newer businesses to established Fortune 500 firms, the innovative recycling management program benchmarks, monitors and continuously upgrades their recycling processes. This is what not only achieves their sustainability goals but grows the financial worth of their waste.
The process starts with a free Waste Audit Survey, which takes only 10 minutes to fill out but is comprehensive in scope. Serving as an initial “recycling health scorecard,” the survey results help determine how each customer captures and recycles waste materials, what’s working and what’s not. The responses are associated with a point scale and averaged into five categories to achieve a scale percentage, or the score. Mid America uses this score to maximize your recycling facility’s efficiency and safety, and update employee training procedures.
The audit taxonomy also assesses areas including:
- Current operating procedures
- Organizational goals
- Frequency of recycling reports issued, reviewed and updated
- Waste volumes
- Staff training to maintain logistics, handling efficiencies
- Revenues and financial goals
- Level of service received
- Equipment and labor involved
- Continuous improvement objectives
- Safety, preventative maintenance programs in place
After taking the survey, Mid America’s hands-on team of experts then develops and executes your custom plan with our specific financial goals in mind. This can improve the flow of waste through your facilities, eliminate cost streams and conserve and capture the most value possible.
As part of the process, Mid America also determines how loads of recyclable waste materials are shipped and how all of the steps within the recycling process can be improved to accrue more revenue per ton.
“Companies that have completed a Waste Audit with us have found that they can increase their revenues from paper recycling by up to 50 percent,” Pirkle emphasizes. “Continuous Improvement is so important today in many areas of an operation. The Waste Audit brings this same strategic concept to a recycler's current waste handling practices and builds a smart program that continuously improves the worth of their waste.”
To learn more about Mid America’s Waste Audit, visit
https://www.midamericapaper.com/waste-reduction-audit.
