A waste audit weighs what your business throws away, by type. It shows how much is recyclable and what that waste costs you. With GarGeon it is not a separate purchase: we weigh and categorise what is in your bins before quoting anything. This guide covers what gets measured, the six phases, and what you receive.
A waste audit with GarGeon is not a separate purchase
The audit is part of how GarGeon starts. We weigh and categorise what is actually in your bins before quoting anything. A collection schedule built on a guess is how businesses end up paying for capacity they do not use. You get the baseline either way. It is what the rest of the programme is measured against.
It is also the first step of total waste management: one partner for the audit, collection, recycling and reporting.
The audit hands you a baseline like this one
The baseline is one table. It lists every waste stream, what it weighs and where it goes today. A waste stream is one type of waste kept apart, such as cardboard or food. The first row below shows sample wording only. It is not a client's result. The other rows are blank, for your own numbers.
| Waste stream | Weight | Share of the total | Where it goes today | What could change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardboard (sample wording only) | ____ kg | ____% | General waste bin, then landfill | Separate at source and sell to a recycler |
| Paper and cardboard | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Plastics | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Glass | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Metals | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Food and other organics | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Textiles | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| E-waste | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Residual: what cannot be recycled | ____ kg | ____% | ____ | ____ |
| Total | ____ kg | 100% |
Each share is that stream's weight divided by the total weight. The last two columns are the ones you act on. "Where it goes today" names the bin and the destination for each stream. "What could change" is the action: separate it, sell it, or collect it less often.
Here is what measuring led to at two clients.
Pangsapuri Optimus is a residential apartment block. Its old vendor was paid per trip, so nobody had a reason to ask whether a trip was needed. Several months of collection data showed trips being made against half-empty bins. Once the trips it did not need came out of the schedule, its monthly bill fell by 20–30%.
CCL Impex is a vegetable wholesaler. Its previous recycler reported one total weight for the month. With recyclables separated at source and every collection weighed, its recycling rose from 1–2 tonnes a month to 5–6.
These are two sites' records, not a forecast. What your audit finds depends on what is in your bins.
What Is a Waste Audit?
A waste audit is a measurement of what your business throws away and where it goes. Think of it as a financial audit for your bins. You count kilograms instead of ringgit. You group them by stream: paper, plastic, organics, metals and the rest.
The aim: find recyclables you pay to landfill, contamination that raises your bill, and gaps in your data. Contamination is other waste mixed into your recyclables, which spoils them.
Act 672 is Malaysia's solid waste law, and SWCorp enforces it in eight states and territories. In the states where it applies, source-separation rules already cover commercial premises, so you need to know what is in your bins. If your company is listed, Bursa's reporting guide asks for waste figures by weight too, as our guide to Bursa sustainability reporting sets out.
What Gets Measured in a Commercial Waste Audit
A waste audit captures four figures.
| Metric | What it measures | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Composition | The percentage breakdown by material | Shows which recyclable streams are going to landfill |
| Weight | Kilograms for each waste category | Reports and rebates are both counted in weight |
| Contamination rate | The share of recyclables spoiled by other waste | Shows where bin labels and bin placement are failing |
| Diversion rate | The share of your waste kept out of landfill | The headline figure in a sustainability report |
Many businesses count bins instead: "we fill three a week". But a compacted cardboard bin and a loose plastic bin look the same and weigh very different amounts. So an audit weighs.
For what to record once the audit is done, see our guide to waste data for ESG reports. ESG reports cover a company's environmental, social and governance record, and waste sits under environmental.
The Six Phases of a Commercial Waste Audit
A full audit runs in six phases. With GarGeon it takes about a week: a site visit, then your baseline within days.
| Phase | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1. Planning and preparation | An agreed scope: which sites and which waste streams. Your contracts, disposal records and bin schedules gathered in one place |
| 2. Pre-audit walk-through | Every point where waste is produced, with photos of the bins and labels. The obvious quick wins noted |
| 3. Sample collection | Samples from every point, taken in a normal operating week, not a holiday week |
| 4. Weighing by material | The weight of each category, with photos. Contamination noted in each recyclable stream |
| 5. Analysis | Your composition breakdown, diversion rate, contamination by stream and cost by category |
| 6. Report and action plan | The baseline table above. Recommendations ranked by impact, each with a target, a date and an owner |
The report should answer four questions:
- What are we throwing away?
- What should we divert instead?
- What do today's habits cost us?
- What can we change now, and what over 12 months?
An audit is only useful once you act on it
The baseline shows you where to start. These quick wins fit in the first four weeks:
- Improve bin signage. Clear labels with photos cut contamination straight away.
- Move the bins. Put recycling where the waste is produced, not only at the exits.
- Brief your staff. Run a 15-minute session on what goes where.
- Remove what spoils the recyclables. If coffee cups keep ruining the paper, give liquids their own bin.
After that, weigh a sample each quarter to check the changes are holding.
To put ringgit on your baseline, use the worksheet in our recycling vs landfill cost guide. For the steps that follow an audit, see our six steps to sustainable waste management.
We start with what is in your bins
Book a consultation and we weigh and categorise what is in your bins before we quote anything. After that, GarGeon Connect, our online portal, logs every pickup's weight, time and photo. The same figures feed your sustainability reporting. Recyclables you separate can earn a rebate, your share of what recyclers pay for them, through Recycle Solutions. For a one-off clear-out, see our RORO bin rental.
