Paper. On average, 60-80% of office waste produced by businesses is paper. The average office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper per year! Some paper waste is inevitable, but much of it can be avoided.
There are many different types of office waste that we would expect businesses to produce. The five main culprits for office waste are paper, food, plastic, general office waste and e-waste.
Food is the most common form of waste, accounting for almost 50 percent of global MSW. Millions of tons of food is wasted every year, especially fruit and vegetables. Much like other waste forms, the United States is a major producer of food waste, generating almost 100 million metric tons of food waste every year.
GENERAL WASTE
Coffee cups, Styrofoam plates, and thin, film-like plastics are among the commonly used items that are often found in offices and also cannot be recycled.
One of the most common examples of workplace waste involves unnecessary departmental purchases. It's a costly practice which results in an excess inventory of supplies, not to mention a considerable duplication of spending.
The well-known Seven Wastes are transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, and defects.
The major components are food waste, paper, plastic, rags, metal and glass, although demolition and construction debris is often included in collected waste, as are small quantities of hazardous waste, such as electric light bulbs, batteries, automotive parts and discarded medicines and chemicals.
Waste Generation
Developed societies, such as the U.S., generally produce large amounts of municipal solid waste (e.g., food wastes, packaged goods, disposable goods, used electronics) and commercial and industrial wastes (e.g., demolition debris, incineration residues, refinery sludges).
Carbon dioxide and urea.
Waste that we see in our surroundings is also known as garbage. Garbage is mainly considered as a solid waste that includes wastes from our houses (domestic waste), wastes from schools, offices, etc (municipal wastes) and wastes from industries and factories (industrial wastes).
Kitchen and food waste. In Australia we waste more than 30% of the food we purchase. Australian consumers throw away around 3.1 million tonnes of food each year. Of this, 2.54 million tonnes of food waste was from our homes.
Waste and hazardous waste
There are 5 solid waste classes: special, hazardous, restricted solid, general solid (putrescible), general solid (non-putrescible). Within these there are various sub-classes: Special: 3 classes (clinical and related wastes, asbestos wastes, waste tyres) Hazardous wastes: 6 classes.
Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste (some types of which are toxic) or non-hazardous waste.
Under the lean manufacturing system, seven wastes are identified: overproduction, inventory, motion, defects, over-processing, waiting, and transport.
Look at your existing processes and identify areas where waste is a problem. You could compare materials and component purchases with output, look at waste disposal reports, talk to relevant managers or operators, or simply walk around your business. Get additional information from customers or suppliers if necessary.
A few examples of industrial wastes include chemical solvents, paints, sandpapers, paper products, metals, concrete, etc. A significant problem faced by most industries is associated with the disposal of waste.
There are 8 types of waste - transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over-production, over-processing, defects and skills/talent. Below are the definitions of these wastes and where they can be commonly identified in a warehouse setting.
The 8 Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing. The types of wastes found in lean manufacturing can be identified by the acronym DOWNTIME, which stands for Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory excess, Motion, and Excess processing.
To help focus efforts in this area, Lean practitioners developed a list of eight wastes which establish the most likely areas where waste will occur: defects, overproduction, transportation, non-value adding processing, motion, waiting, unused talent and inventory.
The 5 R's: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle.