Business Treading Lightly (BTL)  has secured additional funding to carry out a waste audit on typical facilities within our first target sector – the aged care industry.

The funds for the waste audit come from the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) and will assess the amount and types of waste being generated by a nursing home, hostel and independent living facility. 

The audit will provide base line data for waste generation from these facilities in order to develop and implement a waste management plan aimed at reducing the amount of waste to landfill and saving money for the facility.   

The data from this audit will be compared with the data that will be collected once the waste minimisation plan is fully implemented.  This information will form the basis of a case study that can be used to demonstrate the environmental and financial benefits in implementing waste minimisation plans and practices.   

“Comparing data from before and after the minimisation plan will allow us to truly measure how effective the plan is in reducing waste and costs” said BTL Program Manager Leanne Taylor.

“With the cost of waste disposal set to rise substantially over the next few years this information will be very useful to those organisations partnering with BTL.” 

The audit forms part of the DECC efforts to establish base line data for specific industries for future use as benchmark data.  

The audit of the aged care facility will be carried out in September  with data to be provided by end of October 2008.