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Waste Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • Updated

Table of Contents

Waste Contractor

Waste Types

Targets and Baselines

Waste Disposal

 

Regarding waste contractor due diligence and legal environment performance (e.g., historic violations), how many years back should we check the historic violation records against legal environment performance of waste contractors?

Ideally at least 5 years, but this is not mandatory every 5 years if they have a valid environmental permit for the reporting year. These are only examples, and the facility can set their own process for conducting a historic violation review.

 

Regarding waste contractor qualifications (e.g., business license, environment permits, reports), what do reports refer to and which of the three should we check?

Reports are just an example, but the priority is on Business License and Environment PermitThese reports could be public-facing sustainability reports or even government-issued reports on facility conformance to legal requirements.

 

Waste Types

Are packages (and the waste generated) delivered to the office considered office waste? 

Packaging waste is included in the total count of office waste.

 

What is "textile waste"?

Textile waste is essentially fabric waste, which can be generated from a fabric cutting operation or a fabric mill in the form of rejected material that is sent out as waste.

 

Does general or unspecified waste refer to household waste?

Yes, household waste is considered non-hazardous waste and can be reported as general or unspecified waste.

 

Which type of waste does LED light belong to? Is a light bulb hazardous or harmless? Is electronic waste hazardous or harmless?

According to the How to Higg guide, light bulbs are considered hazardous waste.

Facilities are recommended to report these under the “Other” option within the Hazardous Waste category.

 

Targets and Baselines

When normalizing baselines and targets, is there a standard unit of measurement that should be applied?

The Higg FEM requires standard input units of measure that are pre-determined, and facilitate industry benchmarking. A facility can however apply its own units of measure for internal target setting.

For verification purposes it must demonstrate calculations for conversion to the FEM's pre-determined units.but the facility can use its own alternative units for internal target setting. The facilities are required to demonstrate conversion to pre-determined units for verification purposes.

 

If a facility has canceled a specific process, should the same process be selected when indicating the hazardous waste generated after setting it as a baseline in 2021?

The same process does not need to be re-selected. Items can be de-selected in later FEMs even if they have been baselined in earlier years.

 

Waste Disposal

What is the difference between favorable and unfavorable waste disposal method options?

Within the FEM 4.0, disposal methods can be found in a hierarchy based on waste management options: preferred options, less preferred options, and least preferred options. A best practice is to use the preferred options for waste disposal, as these have the least amount of environmental impacts. It is still acceptable to use less preferred options for waste disposal, even though it has more environmental impacts. Least preferred options should be used, if at all, as a last resort.

 

Can we validate the final disposal and treatment of all non-hazardous waste through contractors we work with, or do we need to go to the final disposal handler for validation?

If the contractor can provide documentation identifying the final disposal entity, and that information is conveyed to the facility, this should be sufficient.

However, if the contractor is unable to provide the same information, the facility is encouraged to approach the final disposal entity to request it.