Your waste diversion rate is the weight you kept out of landfill, divided by the total weight you generated, times 100. This page gives you a blank worksheet for your own tonnages. Under it are two real calculations from our client records: one high, at 73.69%, and one low, at 3.2%.
Fill in this worksheet to work out your own rate
Take one month of weight tickets or invoices. List every stream that left your site, in tonnes. Then write where each one went. Use the same month for every row. If a ticket is in kilograms, divide by 1,000.
| Stream | Tonnes this month | Where it went | Counted as diverted? |
|---|---|---|---|
| General waste | ____ | Landfill | No |
| Cardboard and paper | ____ | ____ | Yes / No |
| Plastics | ____ | ____ | Yes / No |
| Metal | ____ | ____ | Yes / No |
| Food waste | ____ | ____ | Yes / No |
| Other: ____ | ____ | ____ | Yes / No |
| A. Diverted: add the "Yes" rows | ____ | ||
| B. Generated: add every row | ____ | ||
| Your rate: A ÷ B × 100 | ____ % |
The sum is the same at every site:
Waste diversion rate = (tonnes diverted from landfill ÷ total tonnes generated) × 100
Mark a stream "Yes" when it went to a recycler, a composter or reuse. Mark it "No" when it went to landfill, or when you cannot show where it went.
Waste-to-energy is the one to state plainly. It keeps material out of landfill, but not every standard counts it. Write the rule you used beside your rate.
Recycling is only one of these routes. So your diversion rate is never lower than your recycling rate.
No weights yet? Start with a waste audit, which weighs each stream for you.
Two real calculations show a high rate and a low rate
Both come from GarGeon Connect records.
| Site | Period | Diverted (tonnes) | Total waste (tonnes) | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signature Market, an e-commerce company | 2025 | 68.598 | 93.09 | 73.69% |
| A retail mall client | June 2026 | 1.31 | 40.02 landfilled + 1.31 recycled | 3.2% |
Signature Market: 68.598 ÷ 93.09 × 100 = 73.69%. Most of what it kept out of landfill was carton. Diverting those recyclables cut its disposal costs by 70%.
The mall: 1.31 ÷ (40.02 + 1.31) × 100 = 3.2%. Recycling was its only route out of landfill. The figures are published with the client's permission.
The mall's rate fell in every month of the quarter
| Month in 2026 | Landfilled (tonnes) | Recycled (tonnes) | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | 33.50 | 2.40 | 6.7% |
| May | 37.99 | 1.62 | 4.1% |
| June | 40.02 | 1.31 | 3.2% |
| Quarter | 111.51 | 5.33 | 4.6% |
The rate went from 6.7% to 4.1% to 3.2%. It fell from both sides of the sum. Recycled weight dropped from 2.40 t to 1.31 t. Landfilled weight rose from 33.50 t to 40.02 t. April's recycling had carton and metal. May and June had carton only.
We printed that fall in the client's quarterly report. We also said what to check. Were cardboard and metal going into the general bins? Had a recent vendor change cut the recycling pickups?
A report where every arrow is green reads as marketing. A falling rate, printed and acted on, is what measurement looks like. The sum and both notes are published on our recycling rate page.
The period matters too. Signature Market's figure covers a full year. The mall's 3.2% covers one month, and its quarter came to 4.6%. State the period beside every rate you report.
A good rate depends on what your site throws away
There is no single good figure. Three GarGeon clients show how far measured rates spread.
| Client | Sector | Measured rate | What was measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signature Market | E-commerce | 73.69% | Diversion rate for 2025: 68.598 t of 93.09 t |
| Meewah Vegetable Wholesale | Food wholesale | 8% | Recycling rate, from its case study |
| A retail mall client | Retail mall | 4.6% | Recycling rate for Q2 2026: 5.33 t recycled, 111.51 t to landfill |
The spread is the point. Signature Market diverts mostly carton, which recyclers buy. Meewah handles large volumes of organic waste. So measure your own baseline before you set a target.
The national figure is not your benchmark either. Malaysia's recycling rate was 37.9% in 2024, and it includes household waste.
At the top end, TRUE zero waste certification asks for 90% or more diverted. It does not count waste-to-energy. Our guide to zero waste in Malaysia shows the stages on the way there.
Work in tonnes, because volume misleads
A compacted cardboard bale and a loose bag of plastic can fill the same space. They weigh very different amounts. A rate built on bin counts or lorry loads cannot be checked against a ticket.
If you have no weighbridge data, ask your collector for a weight ticket with every collection. Credible reporting starts there.
Four counting mistakes change your answer
- Leaving a stream out. E-waste, construction debris and landscaping waste all belong in your total.
- Counting a tonne twice. Recyclables you sold directly can also show up in your collector's figures. Count each tonne once.
- Ignoring contamination. If a recycler rejects part of a load, that part went to landfill. Do not count it as diverted.
- Using estimates. A monthly guess will not satisfy an auditor. Use weighed loads.
Then show your working. Our client reports write the division out, so anyone can check the rate. That matters when a listed customer or an auditor asks for the number. The rules behind those requests are in our waste compliance checklist for 2026.
You raise the rate by building a programme around your baseline
The steps are the same at most sites. Audit what is in your bins. Separate at source. Appoint a collector who keeps the streams apart and holds the approval your state requires. Report every month. Our 90-day waste diversion programme playbook takes you through them in order.
GarGeon can run the collection side. Through Recycle Solutions, collectors in our licensed partner network pick up the recyclables you separate. We share the rebate with you. Your general waste still goes to landfill, with every load weighed and recorded.
If you want collection, recycling and reporting on one contract, see how total waste management works across your sites.
We can work out your first rate with you
Tell us your sites and what you throw away. Book a consultation and we start with a free waste audit, so your first rate is a weighed one. For a one-off clear-out, see our RORO bin rental options.
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