WasteWise
EPA’s WasteWise encourages organizations and businesses to achieve sustainability in their practices and reduce select industrial wastes. WasteWise is part of EPA’s sustainable materials management efforts, which promote the use and reuse of materials more productively over their entire life cycles.
On this page:
- What is WasteWise?
- WasteWise and Climate Change
- Join WasteWise
- WasteWise Requirements and Reporting
- Awards and Award Winners
- ENERGY STAR's Portfolio Manager - Track More Than Waste
What Is WasteWise?
All U.S. businesses, governments and nonprofit organizations can join WasteWise as a partner, endorser or both. Current participants range from small local governments and nonprofit organizations to large multinational corporations.
Partners demonstrate how they reduce waste, practice environmental stewardship and incorporate sustainable materials management into their waste-handling processes. Endorsers promote enrollment in WasteWise as part of a comprehensive approach to help their stakeholders realize the economic benefits to reducing waste.
Benefits of joining WasteWise include:
- Opportunities to receive WasteWise Awards for outstanding achievements.
- Public recognition in WasteWise publications, case studies, meetings and on EPA’s website.
- Annual WasteWise Climate Profile describing greenhouse gas reductions achieved through waste diversion.
- Reduced purchasing and waste disposal costs.
- Outreach and educational materials and free one-on-one technical assistance via the WasteWise Helpline.
WasteWise and Climate Change
WasteWise helps organizations reduce their impact on global climate change through waste reduction. Every stage of a product's life cycle—extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal—indirectly or directly contributes to the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and affects the global climate.
For instance, product manufacturing releases GHGs both directly, from the manufacturing process, and indirectly, from the energy produced to run the plant. Waste prevention and recycling—jointly referred to as waste reduction—offer significant potential for decreasing GHG emissions. For more information about the relationship between climate and waste, visit the Climate Change and Waste website.
WasteWise participants can use the WARM tool to calculate the GHG reductions associated with partners' recycling and waste prevention activities. The Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Data Management SystemExit allows you to track and communicate the benefits of these waste diversion efforts while improving your operations. WasteWise also provides partners with an annual Climate Profile, which translates technical GHG reduction data into an easily understandable, graphics-enhanced report.
Join WasteWise
Join WasteWise as a partner if your organization generates wastes and has a means to measure recycling and waste reduction efforts. Endorsers help their stakeholders realize that reducing solid waste makes good business sense.
Levels of WasteWise Participation
There are three main levels of participation for both partners and endorsers within WasteWise. The guide below outlines the various levels and associated commitments for each status level. Some of the levels have a time limit; however, most do not. The levels of participation include the following:
Registrant
- Registrants joined WasteWise within the last 90 days, but have not yet submitted their initial baseline or established goals.
- Members become registrants automatically when they sign up via the SMM DatabaseExit and hold this status until they submit baseline data.
- Participants with this status will have their name appear on EPA's WasteWise website.
New Participant
- New participants submitted their baseline data and established annual commitments/goals, but have not yet submitted their first annual report.
- The Helpline updates the member’s status after they submit the baseline data.
- Participants with this status will have their name appear on EPA's WasteWise website.
Active Participant
- Active participants submitted their baseline, annual commitments/goals and most recent set of annual data. A participant does not have to achieve its annual commitments/goals to be considered "active."
- Participants with this status will have their name appear on EPA's WasteWise website.
Plan Your WasteWise Participation
- Form a waste reduction team to maintain your waste reduction participation—planning, designing and implementing activities. By forming a team, employees throughout your organization can share in your efforts. The team may be responsible for:
- Working with your organization's management to set short- and long-term waste reduction goals.
- Gathering and analyzing information related to the design and implementation of your planned activities.
- Promoting the program to other employees and educating them on ways to participate.
- Monitoring progress.
- Reporting the status of planned activities to management.
- Reporting the organization's waste reduction efforts annually to WasteWise.
- Conduct a waste assessment. A Waste Assessment Approach or “waste audit” is a systematic review of your facility and its operations to quantify waste generation and identify management practices. Waste assessment data will give your team a much better understanding of the types and amounts of waste your organization generates.
- Define the scope of your participation. Focus your waste reduction activities and resources on certain areas of your organization. To determine the scope, examine your facilities or key operations for waste reduction opportunities, and then choose waste reduction areas on which to focus.
- Evaluate your options. Use your waste assessment results to choose waste reduction activities. Consider holding a brainstorming session to identify potential activities. List your most promising options and evaluate them in terms of economic and operational feasibility. When analyzing and selecting your options:
- Focus first on waste prevention, which will help eliminate waste at the source, saving natural resources and energy and cutting costs.
- Next, evaluate recycling options to manage waste that cannot be prevented. Before collecting recyclables, identify markets for them.
- Finally, examine opportunities to buy or manufacture recycled content products.
- Set goals that can be tracked and measured. Use the results of your waste assessment to identify activities to help you prevent waste, expand recycling, and increase the purchasing/manufacturing of recycled-content products.
- Implement your planned activities. Many successful activities begin with an organization-wide kickoff event that offers your organization’s leaders an opportunity to encourage participation and explain your goals.
- Work with WasteWise. The information specialists at the WasteWise Helpline offer free technical assistance to help you identify goals, share insights and success stories from other partners/endorsers, answer program questions and provide information and resources.
Announce Your Achievements
Announce your waste reduction successes to your employees and community to maintain momentum, increase awareness and sustain management support. Sharing your success with the community will demonstrate your organization’s environmental stewardship.
- Use the WasteWise logo- Partners/Endorsers that have registered and submitted their WasteWise baseline data are eligible to use the WasteWise logo to promote their waste reduction efforts internally and externally.
- Give presentations- Explain how WasteWise activities can help organizations reduce their impact on the global climate.
- Publicize your achievements in articles- Use articles to inform your employees about how they can get involved and to share your environmental goals with your stakeholders.
WasteWise Requirements and Reporting
WasteWise has specific requirements for its various partners and endorsers, which determine each organization's reporting guidelines and goals.
Requirements for New Partners
As a new partner, you must first complete the following steps:
- Join WasteWise by completing a registration formExit.
- Once your organization has been approved in the new system, you will gain access to your Participation Agreement. You should login Exit and complete this form within seven days of being approved.
- Submit baseline data in the SMM Data Management System within 90 days of registration.
- Within the first 90 days of registering, establish an annual quantitative goal of at least a five percent increase in waste diversion (i.e. a combination of waste prevention and recycling) from the previous year.
- After year one, establish self-directed quantitative annual goals in waste diversion, showing continuous improvement.
- Submit annual data in the SMM Data Management System Exitby March 31 of each year.
By March 31 of the next calendar year, you should complete a Partner Annual Data form Exit with data from the calendar year you joined to see whether you achieved your baseline goal. You should also complete a Partner Annual Goal formExit, setting a goal for your first full year of participation that’s at least a five percent increase over the year you joined. By March 31 of every following year, you should report annual totals from the previous year and set a self-directed quantitative goal for the upcoming year.
Requirements for Existing Partners
To remain an active participant in WasteWise, partners must complete the following steps by March 31 of each year in the SMM Data Management SystemExit:
- Submit annual data for the previous year.
- Establish an annual goal for a self-directed quantitative increase in waste diverted (a combination of waste prevention, recycling and composting tonnage) as compared to the previous year. The goal can be for an increase in a single activity or across all activities.
Requirements for Endorsers
All existing endorsers will complete a Endorser Annual Data formExit via the SMM Data Management System quantifying their endorser activities and establish annual goals for the upcoming year. New endorsers will set their Endorser First Year goals, report activities following their first full year of participation and then set new goals for the next year.
Awards and Award Winners
Recognition is a key element of the Sustainable Materials Management Program and WasteWise. EPA is pleased to recognize the following organizations for their outstanding leadership in waste prevention and diversion.
2016 WasteWise Award Winners
- Very Large Business, Partner of the Year: Oracle Americas, Inc.
- Large Business, Partner of the Year: Commonwealth Edison Company
- Mid-Size Business, Partner of the Year: Frito Lay, Beloit, Wisconsin Facility
- Small Business, Partner of the Year: Earth Friendly Products
- Federal Government, Partner of the Year: Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center
- Local Government, Partner of the Year: City of Chesapeake Garage
- College/University, Partner of the Year: University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Previous WasteWise Award Winners
2015 Award Winners
- Very Large Business, Partner of the Year: Toyota Motor North America
- Very Large Business, Honorable Mention: Kohl’s Department Stores
- Large Business, Partner of the Year: ComEd (Commonwealth Edison Company)
- Large Business, Honorable Mention: Rooms To Go
- Mid-Size Business, Partner of the Year: Madison Precision Products
- Small Business, Partner of the Year: Exel Lockport
- Small Business, Honorable Mention: Command Packaging
- Federal Government, Partner of the Year: US Postal Service HQ Facilities
- Federal Government, Honorable Mention: The Presidio Trust
- Tribal Government, Partner of the Year: Chumash Casino Resort
- Local Government, Partner of the Year: City of Fort Lauderdale
- College/University, Partner of the Year: Colorado State University
- College/University, Honorable Mention: Clark University
- Non-Profit Organization, Partner of the Year: Cannon Grange #152
- Endorser of the Year: Global Fiberglass Solutions, Inc.
2014 Award Winners
- Very Large Business, Partner of the Year: Kohl’s Department Stores
- Large Business, Partner of the Year: Commonwealth Edison Company
- Mid-Size Business, Partner of the Year: FRITO-LAY
- Mid-Size Business, Honorable Mention: Madison Precision Products
- Small Business, Partner of the Year: Odebrecht USA
- Small Business, Honorable Mention: Command Packaging
- Federal Government, Partner of the Year: Presidio Trust
- Local Government, Partner of the Year: City of Urbana, IL
- Local Government, Honorable Mention: City of Chesapeake Garage
- College/University, Partner of the Year: University of Southern Maine
- College/University, Honorable Mention: University of Rochester
- Non-Profit Organization, Partner of the Year: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Non-Profit Organization, Honorable Mention: Norwalk Hospital
- Endorser of the Year: Exel Lockport
2013 Award Winners
- Very Large Business, Partner of the Year: Sprint Nextel Corporation
- Very Large Business, Honorable Mention: Kohl’s Department Stores
- Large Business, Partner of the Year: Toyota Motor Sales
- Large Business, Honorable Mention: Commonwealth Edison Company
- Mid-Size Business, Partner of the Year: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
- Mid-Size Business, Honorable Mention: Frito-Lay, Inc
- Small Business, Partner of the Year: Exel Lockport
- Small Business, Honorable Mention: American Licorice
- Federal Government, Partner of the Year: The Presidio Trust
- Federal Government, Honorable Mention: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Local Government, Partner of the Year: Abington Township
- Local Government, Honorable Mention: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
- College/University, Partner of the Year: Western Michigan University
- College/University, Honorable Mention: Richland College
- Non-Profit Organization, Partner of the Year: The Orchards at Southington
- Non-Profit Organization, Honorable Mention: Norwalk Hospital
- Endorser of the Year: ESE Solutions LLC
2012 Award Winners
- Very Large Business, Partner of the Year: Kohl’s Department Stores
- Very Large Business, Honorable Mention: Sears Holdings Corporation
- Large Business, Partner of the Year: DTE Energy
- Large Business, Honorable Mention: Toyota Motor Sales
- Mid-Size Business, Partner of the Year: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
- Mid-Size Business, Honorable Mention: Frito-Lay, Inc
- Small Business, Partner of the Year: Exel Lockport
- Small Business, Honorable Mention: Quaker Manufacturing LLC
- Federal Government, Partner of the Year: The DOE Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL)
- Federal Government, Honorable Mention: Presidio Trust
- Local Government, Partner of the Year: Sand Creek Station Golf Course
- Local Government, Honorable Mention: Mahoning County Commissioners’ Reuse and Recycling Division
- College/University, Partner of the Year: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- College/University, Honorable Mention: Colorado State University
- School, Partner of the Year: Damascus Elementary School
- School, Honorable Mention: The Willow School
- Non-Profit Organization, Partner of the Year: Cannon Grange #152 Inc
- Endorser of the Year: ESE Solutions LLC
ENERGY STAR's Portfolio Manager - Track More Than Waste
EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is an online tool used to measure and track energy and water consumption as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is used to benchmark the performance of one building or a whole portfolio of buildings in a secure environment. EPA has added a waste tracking feature to this tool that makes it easy for building managers to track waste and materials in addition to conventional utilities associated with building operations.
Portfolio Manager can help building owners and managers across the commercial market more effectively manage their waste by allowing them to track, by building, the type and amount of material they send for donation, reuse, recycling, composting, and disposal. The waste tracking feature is an additional opportunity for building managers to engage with the Portfolio Manager tool, and for EPA to encourage building management practices that reduce waste and ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The addition of waste tracking will bring greater visibility to waste management and the opportunities to reduce costs and environmental impacts.
For more information on ENERGY STAR’S Portfolio Manager: