5 Reasons Why You Should Overspend on Waste - Part 1

As strange as it sounds, there are in fact some solid reasons to overspend on waste.

But for the majority of companies nationwide (the actual number hovers in the 90% range), these reasons aren’t actually applicable. These reasons aren’t actually good reasons to overspend! Why would you chose not to save money? Most companies simply don’t realize they’re overspending.

There are 5 reasons why you should overspend on your waste and recycling disposal expenses.

1. You can afford to make your waste hauler rich

2. You love inefficiency.

3. You don’t like to delegate to experts.

4. You like having waste problems.

5. You like to ignore relevant data.

In this series, we’ll explore all the reasons you should keep overspending by 10-30% on your waste expenses. In this blog post (part 1 of a 2-part series), we’ll look at reasons 1-3.

You can afford to make your waste hauler rich

You may be one of the few companies out there who has excess funds. You may be flush with extra revenue, so how much you pay for waste services at all of your locations isn’t of concern to you. You may not have to worry about budget forecasts or balancing the books at the end of the month.

And if you do have excess funds, you may have already decided to allocate them to overpriced waste expenses. You can afford to spend whatever the waste companies charge you. (An aside: most hauler contracts are designed to allow indiscriminate price hikes, so most companies pay more than they should for expenses incurred over the term of their contract.)

Or, you may just enjoy overspending. Maybe you like the idea of helping your chosen waste vendor become rich. You may like helping them increase profits by paying extraneous fees. You may enjoy the sudden price hikes that add to their bottom line.

But chances are, this isn’t true.

You love waste service and equipment inefficiency.

You may love knowing that you’re likely one of the 70% of companies who are being over-serviced by their trash vendor. You may enjoy getting too many pick-ups every week at your locations. After all, who doesn’t love paying for services they don’t need?

These extra pick-up only benefit one person - and it’s not you. Your hauler is likely incentivized to make additional pickups because more pickups almost always mean more revenue. When was the last time you heard of a hauler voluntarily reducing their service frequency?

Additionally, you may like leaving equipment inefficiency to chance. You may be satisfied with inefficient waste and service levels. (50% of companies have too much or too little waste equipment.) You may prefer not to have an expert review your current waste management process for redundant equipment or ineffective waste equipment.

You don’t like to delegate to experts.

You may think you have the resources to complete your own waste review. And some people are able to complete a cursory review on their own! But most CEOs and COOs don’t have the expertise it takes to do their own waste analysis. Waste reviews are not simple processes to complete. It can be difficult to know where to begin, what exactly to assess, and how to assess your current process in general.

And if they do have the expertise, it’s likely they don’t have the time. We provide our clients the two things they need most - a professional waste assessment or review, but with very little demand for their time. (Our reviews are almost always 100% remote). We’ve been doing waste reviews for the past 18 years, and we know how to find your hidden waste problems and solve them - for good!

You can keep overspending on waste . . . but you don’t have to.

We provide our clients the two things they need most - a professional waste assessment or review, but with very little demand for their time. If you don’t mind having inefficient waste and recycling services and equipment, you’ll almost certainly keep overspending. And if you don’t want to take advantage of professional expertise, you can keep paying more than you need to for expenses.

But if these reasons aren’t true of you - if you value your resources and your time - then you can chose to stop overspending on waste expenses.

Are there other reasons to keep overspending on waste? Let me know in the comments below!

What would you do with an extra $12,000? This company found out!

Not too long ago, Anita Huffman got in touch with us. As the corporate director of a large manufacturing plant, Anita knew that there was a chance that they could be overspending on waste. They had several dumpsters and compactors on site, but they were also producing plastic byproducts that weren’t being sold.

When they got in touch with us, we explained that they would take on zero risk during our audit process. They wouldn’t pay us anything if we didn’t find savings.

We began the audit process in 2018 and we examined every waste stream that was available to them.

In the end, we found $12,000 worth of monthly savings!

Anita wrote us:

“My team and I were pleasantly surprised how much of a difference you made on our bottom line. 

During your audit, you uncovered more than $12,000 in monthly savings opportunities. Your exhaustive process and your team’s dedication to our success has permanently changed our approach to waste management. 

With your help, we’ve reduced our waste spend by thousands of dollars every year. We’ve decreased equipment inefficiencies, and we have service schedules that align with our production needs. 

Your team has gone the extra mile, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.”

Anita were overspending on their waste and they had no idea! She and her team found out that they were unknowingly making some critical waste management errors. But now, thanks to our exhaustive audit, they’re saving.

Too many companies in the US are overspending on their waste and recycling expenses. You don’t have to be one of them! What could you do with the savings from a 10-30% reduction in waste?

How to Find Waste Savings

There are three easy steps to find your savings opportunities.

1. Have a Discovery Call

2. Sign agreement

3. Audit review process

Let's look at each of these.

Have a Discovery Call

A Discovery Call is the first step towards finding savings. It’s a quick, free consult where a WCI rep will ask you questions about your current waste management system.

Some of these questions typically include:

• How much do you spend on waste? (We are able to bring the most value to the table for companies who spend more than $10,000 each month)

• How many locations are in your portfolio?

• How many waste streams do you currently have?

• What problems are you currently experiencing with your waste disposal?

• What are your growth plans over the next 1-3 years?

The purpose of these questions is to gauge how much value we can offer you. We aren’t always the best fit for every company.

For instance, if you have only one location with one dumpster, we’re not going to be able to help you very much! But for most companies, our unique offering is a true opportunity.

Who Should Sign Up For a Discovery Call?

You should sign up for a discovery call if one or more of the following is true for you:

• You spend more than $10,000 in waste.

• You are a key decision maker for your company.

• You want to save on your waste spend.

• You want to ensure your waste management is efficient.

• You are tired of paying too much for waste disposal.

If you suspect or know that you have waste issues, you need to know exactly what they are so that they be addressed. You need a waste ally who will bring their market expertise and high rate of success to your portfolio.

You need to someone who can find waste disposal problems, solve them, and prevent them from happening again. In short, you should sign up for a discovery call if you want a waste ally.

Schedule a Discovery Call by clicking here.

Signing our Agreement

After your WCI rep has explained our process, he or she will show you a copy of our service agreement. It’s a simple document; only two pages long.

In a nutshell, it specifies that you agree to share in the quantifiable savings we implement at a rate of 50% for service period of of 36-60 months (depending on the scope of the engagement).

We never expect that you’ll sign on the spot or pressure you in any way. Your WCI rep will typically follow up within a week of our meeting and see where you and other decision makers are at.

Your rep will answer any outstanding questions you may have, and once you sign the service agreement, we move forward with data collection.

Our Audit Review Process

Our audits find savings conveniently and consistently. If you’re like 90% of companies nationwide, your waste contracts are the primary reasons you’re overspending on waste and recycling.

And to get any new contracts right - or to renegotiate old ones - we know we have to review every pertinent detail about every waste and recycling stream at every location.

Fortunately, we can do that remotely, and with inconvenience to your staff being kept to an absolute minimum. To begin our audit, we request several key documents for each location in your portfolio:

• Copies of current trash hauler contracts

• Copies of the most recent invoice

• A list of every location under review

The majority of our clients can assemble this information in just a few hours.

Then, we take 60-90 day to thoroughly evaluate your current waste management process and find where your problems are. We use google maps and google earth to look at the location of dumpsters on your property.

The documentation you give usually tells us everything we need. Your current service agreement tells us about your terms, pricing, and auto-renewal clauses. Your historic invoices show us the hauler’s record of service levels, equipment, rates, and fees.

Right off the bat, our analysts will know if you’re overpaying for a dumpster based on its monthly rate, or if you need to decrease frequency of pick-ups at a certain location. But other information is not nearly so straightforward.

For anything larger than a 8 yard dumpster, we have to evaluate your tonnage, and your frequency of pickup. Does your site really need to be serviced twice a week? Or is bi-weekly service actually ideal? We’ll also ask your site managers questions about your customer service experience.

Your hauler may have great rates, but misses pick-up frequently - and doesn’t give billing credit. This is vital information, and we take it into account when we review your portfolio.

We look for unexplained price hikes, and we look at usage trends. We also look at your service agreements.

We’ll note expiration dates, and we’ll check to see if ancillary fees are limited or exempt. We’ll look for language that prohibits auto-renewals, and limits price increases to a certain percentage.

Then, we’ll find other pricing options. We keep records of nationwide haulers, and we know equitable rates when we see them.

Some of our clients profit from switching waste haulers, but for others, we renegotiate existing contracts for better rates.

Our analysis will make it clear which option is more financially sound for you. We make sure you don’t leave any savings opportunities on the table - which is why we have a success rate of over 90%.

An exhaustive audit is possible with this solutions-oriented approach. Our clients know our audits are thorough and our process works - and they save big.

Ongoing Billing Review and Service Help

Post-audit, we continue to monitor billing for errors - which we find happen about 10% of the time.

We also keep records of when your current hauler contracts are set to expire and contact them at the appropriate time to renegotiate better rates.

But perhaps our clients most appreciate our ability to take on service issues. We know that trying to resolve issues like missed pick-ups can take up an inordinate amount of your staff’s time.

We take these on so you don’t have to!

3 Reasons Why Our Audits are Risk Free

Not every one of our clients were 100% convinced they had waste problems prior to the review.

And to be frank, they didn’t have to be since our audit process is 100% risk free.

Many of our clients had never had a waste audit before, so our process involves three critical risk reduction factors:

1. You only pay us when we find results. We are willing to take the risk of finding no savings because we have such a dependable rate of finding savings. We’re 90% sure we can find savings. But in the event you turn out to be one of the 10% that don’t have savings, you don’t owe us anything.

As one of our clients, Chris Sprenger of SanStone Health and Rehabilitation Center, told us, ““We had zero capital exposure and very limited time invested with your company. When you couple that with the significant savings we were able to achieve, it makes the decision to hire Waste Consultants seem like a no-brainer.”

2. You only pay us out of the savings we find. In other words, our process is cash flow positive. Our services aren’t an added expense, and they aren’t something you have to budget for.

3. You pay us a rate of 50% gross savings. If we find you $100,000 in savings a year, you’ll keep $50,000 and we will be compensated $50,000. Our revenue comes out of the savings we find for you.

As a result, we’re motivated to find the most savings opportunities we can for you and your waste disposal expenses are further reduced.

This is exactly why our audits have such a high success rate.

We know exactly how to find the expensive problems you have with your waste management.

We know what questions to ask, and how to be persistent in finding creative solutions tailored to your needs.

Our success is your success.

The more savings we find, the more we all benefit.

The initial waste review process is entirely self-funded. “Self-funded” means that we incur the initial expenses of performing the 1-3 month long audit.

In other words, you don’t pay us during the initial investigation and analysis period; essentially making the audit itself free.

You don’t pay for:

• Our review of your contracts

• Our analysis of your invoices

• Our evaluation of market prices

• Our requisition of vendor bids

• Our waste and recycling stream analysis

While our waste and recycling audits have a 90% success rate, we don’t think it’s fair for you to pay for a service that you are not directly benefiting from.

You don’t pay for our analysis, you pay for our solutions - the real-world, cost cutting solutions that actually affect and benefit your bottom line.

Just take it from Jen Morrow, Tenant Services Coordinator at The Simpson Organization:

"The cost reduction opportunities that you identified and implemented were substantial and, in this current economic client to say they were welcomed, would be a vast understatement.

We are currently looking at over $100K in gross annual savings due to your efforts.

I also want to say a quick note about the Senior Analyst assigned to us, Tony Perkins. He has done an exemplary job - always professional and very quick to respond to any requests or questions!”