WasteWise is a voluntary EPA program through which organizations eliminate costly municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes, benefiting their bottom line and the environment. WasteWise has a wide variety of members, supporters, and endorsers ranging from local municipalities, agencies, corporations, non-profits, etc.
There are two ways to participate in WasteWise, join as a partner or as an endorser.
To qualify as a partner, the organization needs to agree to reduce or recycle municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes. Any organization that can measure and report wastes can join as a partner.
To join as an endorser, the organization should agree to recruit organizations to become
WasteWise partners and provide partners with promotional, educational, or technical information.
Targeted Initiatives- WasteWise has targeted several initiatives to help its members and provide more information and guidance to its participating organizations. Its special initiatives include:
- Paper - Electronics
- Organics - Building
- Packaging (primary and secondary)
It also has several other special initiatives for things like non-hazardous batteries, coal combustion products, oil filters, etc.
Reporting- In its efforts to reduce waste, the program provides a reporting system (WasteWise Re-TRAC) that its members can log into and see actual results from its initiatives and participants’ actions.
-Simply put, a participating organization collects data on its current waste-related
activities (generation, prevention, recycling and composting,
buying/manufacturing recycled-content products).
-Next, the organization enters the data into the WasteWise Re-TRAC system; this
can be done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
-Then the system creates customized reports, detailed charts, and reporting
information. This is all done with the click of a mouse.
It also submits your annual data to the WasteWise site, maintains historical files, and produces your EPA Climate Profile on a yearly basis. The benefits to the tracking program are numerous; highlighted advantages are that its web based, interactive, flexible, measurable, informative, and secure.
For more information on how to participate in the WasteWise program click here.
*The Electric Utility Industry Sustainablity Supply Chain Alliance is a WasteWise Partner.