Climate change and the global push for sustainability are changing traditional definitions of business risk, and that’s putting a bigger spotlight on how organizations across the world manage their waste. Finding the right partner to support this shift can make the difference between a company's success or failure moving forward.
As waste breaks down in landfills, it emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is 28 to 36 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
Between 1978 and 1997, the estimated global cost of climate-related natural disasters such as storms, droughts, floods and heatwaves was $895 billion (in 2017 dollars).
From 1998 to 2017, the number grew to $2.25 trillion, a 151% increase, according to PreventionWeb.
Additionally, the 215 biggest global companies report that almost $1 trillion of their value will be at risk from climate impacts within the next five years.
Investors are also using sustainability performance to choose where to put their dollars. Half of all U.S. individual investors now practice sustainable investing, while 80% of institutional asset owners use an ESG (Environmental, Safety, Governance) lens in their investment process, according to surveys by Morgan Stanley.
Over time, companies and countries that do not respond to stakeholders and address sustainability risks will encounter growing skepticism from the markets, and in turn, a higher cost of capital.
Larry Fink, Blackrock Chairman and CEO, In his 2020 Annual Letter to CEOs
With this much at stake, it makes sense to adopt a partnership model for waste management. Not only can this help businesses align their waste management practices with sustainability goals that protect the environment, but it can also assist them in solving difficult-to-fix waste disposal challenges before they affect financial performance.
Sustainably managing waste is not a common core business competency. Some challenges companies face as a result include:
Corporate sustainability programs are more common than ever. In 2019, 90% of companies on the S&P 500 index published sustainability, corporate responsibility or governance reports, tracking relative success against performance benchmarks. That’s up from only 20% in 2011 and 86% in 2018, according to the G&A Institute. Yet, many companies don’t have the inhouse expertise or resources to meet the waste-related goals within their sustainability plans.
With more than 180 ESG-related corporate disclosure regulations in place globally and with the European Union’s Nonfinancial Reporting Directive at the forefront, tracking and maintaining compliance has never been more difficult. Many companies need help staying compliant as their regulatory burden becomes more difficult to support on their own.
Defective product incidents have cost more than $2 billion in insured losses over the past five years, according to global risk management company Allianz, with the average cost of a significant incident topping more than $12 million. Assuring destruction of defective products is a necessity to prevent these losses from continuing to accrue and requires specialized resources, such as dedicated waste destruction facilities, that can provide final disposal certification.
As more waste is sent overseas for processing, the costs to manage that waste is rising sharply. For instance, Philadelphia’s price-per-ton for recyclables rose from $4 to $40 a ton in 2017. When they sought to renew their recycling contract with the same provider the next year, the new price was a whopping $170 a ton. As a result, they took on a contract with a new provider at $80 a ton—20 times their price per ton from the previous year, according to Cass Information Systems.
An effective partner drives sustainability goals without sacrificing important elements and needs of the client business, and will be able to deliver these outcomes:
Saves money by increasing reuse/recycling, which can cut collecting, hauling and disposal costs and improve your bottom line.
Provides insight through an understanding of the amount and types of waste an organization produces that leads to a more authoritative position for finding and negotiating contracts for necessary services.
Streamlines reporting and information sharing about waste management activities by providing a single source for tracking and by using an industry standard set of metrics. This makes it easier to share and report information with stakeholders, mitigate your waste’s risks, and ensure its compliance with policies and standards.
Conserves resources through recycling including trees, metals, water, energy and the finances associated with acquiring them from virgin sources.
Protects your brand by eliminating financial, environmental and reputational liabilities that are inherent in waste due to its secure, hazardous or controversial nature.
Enhances sustainability and reduces environmental impacts by managing waste and energy more efficiently. Sustainable waste services offer significant potential for reducing land usage, habitat disruption, greenhouse gas generation, and soil and waterway contamination due to dated operations and disposal methods.
Liquid Waste Management and Wastewater Treatment
Universal Waste and Electronic Waste
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Pharmaceutical and Medical Waste
When not properly destroyed, medical and pharmaceutical waste can fall into the wrong hands and be misused, or it can cause contamination of soil and water. Non-compliance can also be costly, especially for pharmaceutical waste, and can result in fines up to $10 million.
Clients trust us with this waste because we are a nationwide, DEA-registered reverse distributor with more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical waste management and destruction. Each year, we destroy 20 million pounds of controlled substances through our network of DEA Reverse Distributors and our 40-plus Waste-to-Energy facilities.
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Secure Product Destruction
Secure product destruction services address materials that cannot (or should not) be reused or recycled due to an inherently high legal, financial or environmental risk. These solutions mitigate liability by ensuring that confidential, counterfeit, contraband or defective materials are securely, discreetly and absolutely destroyed and then processed into clean energy.
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Product Recall
Product recalls can have a negative impact on a business’s reputation and brand, especially if they cause harm. We have assets and services that help minimize the pain of recalls, such as logistics experts for retrieving products, and truck fleets for transporting the products to secure facilities for secure destruction.
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Our staff and facilities are prepared to receive, clean and dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, or the vessels that contain them, wherever they may be. Some of the services we offer include:
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Transportation and Logistics
Containing and hauling waste away is often difficult and risky when you don’t have the in-house resources to do so. We have you covered–we’ll help with: