3 Reasons All Small Businesses Should Prioritize Waste Management
Posted on: 8 December 2022
Small business owners tend to take on tons of responsibility, but in so doing they often end up ignoring some of the most important everyday aspects of running a business. One of these key aspects is waste management, which doesn't exactly have the appeal of marketing or sales, but nonetheless can lay claim to being just as important. Take a look below for just a few of the reasons every small business should prioritize waste management from the time they open their doors.
Reducing Liability
If your small business treats waste management as an afterthought, then you risk putting your business in situations in which it can be found legally liable for damages. If a certain kind of hazardous waste is not properly disposed of, for example, then your business may be subject to substantial fines and other forms of punishment. To reduce your business's overall liability, consider contracting professional waste management services. While doing so does, of course, represent initial costs, waste management services can actually pay for themselves in the long run simply due to the decreased exposure to liability that small businesses can enjoy.
Protecting the Environment
Proper waste management is essentially synonymous with being environmentally conscious. Small businesses that lack an environmental management system (EMS)—or that have an EMS in place, but don't carefully follow it—cannot realistically claim that their business results in a net benefit to local ecosystems. One easy way to ensure that your company is fully "green" is by communicating the particular needs of your business to a waste management team. They can, in turn, help to eliminate or resolve any environmentally unfriendly practices.
Improving Employee Satisfaction
When your small business prioritizes effective waste management, it also means you are prioritizing the safety of employees. Business waste isn't just shredded paper documents and recyclable materials like glass or cardboard. It commonly includes food waste, clinical waste (i.e. syringes, bandages, and bodily fluids), and hazardous chemicals. Workers who know that their employer has contracted waste management services to handle these kinds of waste will also feel much safer and more secure at the job site as a result.
Small businesses have many more reasons that can serve as sufficient motivation for creating an environmental management system. A significant reduction in liability, a consistent set of "green" company policies, and the preservation of employee safety are just three of the most important.
Contact a local waste management service to learn more.
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