Everyone loves their waste hauler, right? You get top-notch service: your haulers always pick up your waste promptly and they never leave behind a mess or forget to service dumpsters. And their rates are always fair and never go up.
Are you laughing yet?
The reality is, most people really don’t like dealing with their hauler. They’re hard to get a hold of when you really need them, their service often leaves much to be desired, and their fees seem exorbitant given what they actually do.
Psst! Download our free Guide to Reducing Waste Expenses!
You probably already know that you’re not getting the best service, but what can you do? Who has time to fight for better rates and service on top of everything else on their plate? You don’t, but waste consultants do!
Here at Waste Consultants Inc, (WCI) we don’t like seeing anyone paying too much for waste disposal services. We make sure that you aren’t getting raked over the coals with unfair vendor contracts or deceptive industry practices.
Most of our clients spend at least $10,000 a month in waste fees - which is a significant recurring expense! We cut these expenses in two ways: through service improvements and renegotiating agreements. We do a free exhaustive waste audit, then recommend cost-saving measures.
Ready to learn more about how we do what we do? Let’s dive in!
Our Six Step Process
Our six step process is designed to find every waste savings opportunity available to you.
After you sign a service agreement , we partner with you to take these next steps:
Assign WCI personnel
Review waste expenses at all facilities
Identify cost reduction opportunities
Develop recommendations
Implement approved recommendations
Provide a monthly saving report.
Our proven process has helped clients in retail, food, and multi-family industries and others better manage their waste disposal.
Assign WCI Personnel
First, we set up a Kick Off Meeting between you and your project manager. This meeting usually happens by phone, but it has happened on-site on occasion. This meeting is a chance for you to get to know your project manager and discuss what the next 60-90 days will look like as they do a detailed review of your waste disposal expenses.
Review Waste Expenses at All Facilities
In order to conduct our comprehensive audit, we need to gather some relevant waste documents. We will need:
Copies of the most recent waste hauler invoices - typically just a current copy for each location we are reviewing.
Signed Letter of Authorization (LOA) on company Letterhead, which lets us work with your haulers
Copies of contracts in place with current waste and recycling vendors
Vendor online access credentials (if applicable)
List of locations with contacts/managers
We have designed our waste audit to be as non-intrusive as possible to you and those you with whom you work. This paperwork gives us a framework of what your waste needs currently are, and we often also work with our clients by phone as well to get additional information.
Identify Cost Reduction Opportunities
After looking at how you currently manage your waste, we find ways to reduce your monthly waste expenditure.
What specific things do we look at? This varies: every location has different waste needs.
Broadly speaking, we tend to find most of our savings in three ways: in renegotiating hauler contracts, in adjusting the frequency of pick-up, and in getting more efficient waste management equipment.
We may not recommend all of these at every location, but the examples below will give you an idea of some of the ways we identify cost reduction opportunities.
One of the first things we look at is hauler contracts. Is there another hauler that could perform the same services for less? Should you renegotiate your current agreement with your hauler to get better rates?
We also look at the frequency of pick-up. Many of our clients don’t actually need to have pick-ups as often as they do! A recent client, a retirement community, originally had their roll-off dumpster picked up four times a week. After our evaluation, we found that they really only needed to have their trash picked up twice a week. This saved them over $600 a month, or about $7200 a year!
We will confirm with your haulers to find out if your frequency levels are accurate, and indicate this on our report. We also have the ability to use technology (cameras, sensors, etc) to better understand your needs and develop recommendations to reduce expenses and better manage your disposal needs.
Lastly, we examine the waste equipment you have on-site. Do you need a compactor? Do you need a larger or smaller dumpster? If your have an 8 yard dumpster onsite but it only gets half-way filled before the hauler picks it up, it’s likely a good idea to see if you can get a different dumpster size. Every little bit of monthly savings adds up!
Develop Recommendations
Based on our analysis, we create a recommendations report tailored to your industry and location. It shows what you could save, and what to implement to access those savings. We call this a Waste Savings Summary, or “WSS” for short.
The WSS lists each location and every kind of equipment that location has. We compare the existing waste disposal arrangements with our recommendations for new ones. And we also take into account all recycling streams. As you can see below, not every category has potential for savings, but those that do can be pretty significant.
At this sample location, we were able to reduce the dumpster rental at one location from $758.64 to $267.60.
This, combined with savings opportunities in other categories, resulted in a savings of 25% or $4002.53.
Implement Approved Recommendations
“We typically save our clients 20-40% in expenses per month.”
When our report is ready, your project manager will send it to you or the person responsible for its implementation. They will also set up a phone conference to go over it with you. We give you our recommendations report and explain our findings in detail. Then, we implement the recommendations upon your approval.
This report shows exactly what you need to change to reduce waste expenditure. It includes all the information about your current waste management arrangements and shows what your future savings can be. The average varies from location to location, but we typically save our clients 20-40% in expenses per month.
During your follow-up conversation with your program manager, you can ask any questions you want about their findings. Want to know how they were able to save you $300 a month in dumpster fees? Not sure if you should buy or rent a compactor? Want to know more about the dependability of a recommended waste hauler?
Your Project Manager is there to support you and answer all questions you have about how to best manage your waste disposal. And after you decide which recommendations to implement, we work with you to make the necessary changes.
What if there are no savings to be found? We at WCI are compensated only when we find savings for you. If we find no savings opportunity, you pay nothing. We don’t charge fees (like a broker) if our services don’t actually affect your bottom line.
Provide a Monthly Savings Report
Each month, we provide a Monthly Savings Report very similar to our Waste Savings Summary. The report lists your old expenses and your new expenses. It also shows how the waste reduction methods you’ve implemented are effecting your monthly savings.
Prior to sending you this bill, we audit all hauler invoices to make sure that you are not overcharged. We find that bills contain errors about 10% of the time, so we make it a point to review them carefully.
We Partner with You!
So many companies are overspending on their waste management, but yours doesn’t have to be one of them.
Each part of our six-step process is designed to support you in your desire to reduce waste expenditure. We exhaustively examine your waste and recycling streams, then show you opportunities for savings. And we constantly monitor your invoices for discrepancies and for additional expense reduction potential.
What other questions do you have about your waste management process? Want to know more about how we find our clients savings? Let us know in the comments below!