A waste diversion programme keeps waste out of landfill by recycling, composting or reusing it. Build one in three 30-day phases. First weigh what you throw away, then put bins at source and a licensed collector in place. Then report against your baseline, the figures you measured at the start. By day 90 you have a baseline, a first monthly report and a contract with rebate share. A rebate is your share of what recyclers pay for your separated recyclables. With GarGeon, the audit that starts it is free.
The first 90 days run in three phases
| Phase | Days | Focus | What you have at the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–30 | Audit and baseline | A baseline diversion rate by weight, and the streams worth separating |
| 2 | 31–60 | Infrastructure and collector | Bins at source, clear signage, a licensed collector with rebate share |
| 3 | 61–90 | Engagement and first report | Briefed teams, verified pickups on one dashboard, your first monthly report |
In the table, a stream is one type of waste kept apart, such as cardboard or food. The phases build on each other. Skip the baseline and you cannot prove improvement later. Rush the bins before you know your waste, and you buy the wrong ones. Take the 90 days in order.
This guide covers how to build the programme. For what counts as diverted and how to work out your rate, use the worksheet in our waste diversion rate guide.
Days 1–30: measure what you throw away and set a baseline
The first month is about one thing: a number you trust. You cannot claim diversion you cannot prove.
Week 1: name an owner and set the scope. Give one person the programme, even part-time. Decide which sites and which waste points are in scope. A single office is simple. A factory with a canteen, a loading bay and a production line has several streams, so map them before you count anything.
Weeks 2–3: run a waste audit. With GarGeon this is a free setup step. A proper waste audit opens your bins and tells you what is in them, by weight and by material. It gives you four things:
- Composition: how much cardboard, plastic, metal, food waste and general waste you generate
- Your current diversion rate, before you change anything
- Contamination: how much of your "recycling" is spoiled by the wrong items
- Recoverable value: the materials you pay to landfill that a recycler would buy
Week 4: set the baseline and a target. Always measure in tonnes, not bin counts. "Two bins" tells an auditor nothing. Kilograms do. Write down your starting diversion rate and a 12-month target. Set a target you can reach in a year, not one that doubles your rate overnight.
Fill in this baseline table with your own weights
Copy the table and fill it in from your audit. Add a row for every stream your site produces.
| Stream | Tonnes a month | Where it goes today | Could a recycler take it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| General waste | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Cardboard | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Mixed plastics | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Metal and cans | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Food waste | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| A. Diverted today: add the rows that already go to a recycler | ____ | ||
| B. Total: add every row | ____ | ||
| Baseline rate: A ÷ B × 100 | ____ % |
Now look for rows that go to landfill today but that a recycler would take. Each of those tonnes costs you twice. You pay disposal on it, from RM95.50 a tonne. That is the rate our partner collectors are charged at Jeram, passed on to you at cost. And you miss the rebate a recycler would pay.
Weights are what make a baseline worth having. CCL Impex, a vegetable wholesaler, used to get one total weight a month from its recycler. Then its recyclables were separated at source and every collection was weighed. Recycling rose from 1–2 tonnes a month to 5–6. The monthly rebate moved from RM800–1,000 to RM1,500–2,500. That is one site's record, not a forecast.
By day 30 you should have a baseline rate and a shortlist of streams worth separating. The shortlist drives phase two.
Days 31–60: put the bins, separation, and a licensed collector in place
You now know what is in your waste. Month two builds the setup to divert it.
Choose the streams to separate. Do not try to separate everything at once. Start with the streams your audit showed are heavy and clean enough to recover. That is usually cardboard, plastics and metal, plus food waste if you run a canteen or kitchen. Two or three well-run streams beat six that get contaminated.
Set up separation at source. Separation at source means the recyclable is pulled out where the waste is created: at the desk, in the kitchen, on the production line. It is not sorted after everything is mixed. Place clearly labelled bins at every point waste is created, not only at the exit. Use simple, picture-led signage so the right item goes in the right bin. We give you signage guidance matched to your streams. For several sites, see our guide to separation at source at scale.
Appoint a licensed collector. This decision makes or breaks the programme. A collector who mixes your separated recyclables back into a general load undoes the work upstream. Use a vendor checklist: licensing, weight tickets, named disposal facilities. Our guide on how to choose a waste management company walks through it.
GarGeon's Recycle Solutions runs collection through a vetted, licensed partner network across KL, Selangor and Johor. It returns a share of the rebate on your recyclables to you. If you want collection, recycling and reporting on one contract, see how total waste management works across your sites.
Build the rebate into the contract. Cardboard, clean plastics and metal have a market price. Our breakdown of what your recyclables are worth gives indicative ranges. Make sure the rebate share is written into the contract, not left to goodwill. If finance needs convincing first, use our business case for waste diversion.
Be honest about one thing from the start. A diversion programme does not mean everything gets recycled. Recyclables are recovered and sent to recycling. Your general waste still goes to landfill, now under a documented, compliant trail. You recover what can be recovered and account for the rest.
Days 61–90: brief your teams and produce your first monthly report
The setup is only as good as the people using it and the data that proves it works.
Run your own team briefings. This part is client-led, and deliberately so. You know your people, your shifts and your floor. Short briefings work better than long seminars. Try a ten-minute walk-through at the bin station, a photo guide posted above it, and a named person on each floor to answer questions. High-turnover sites should fold the briefing into onboarding, so new starters learn the system on day one. GarGeon does not run your training. You do. We help the setup stick with the signage and the data feedback that keep people honest.
Turn on the data feedback loop. Every collection is logged the same way: weight, timestamp and a photo of the load, visible on your GarGeon Connect dashboard, our online portal. That record does two jobs. It shows a missed pickup the moment it happens. And the photo shows when a bin had the wrong items. "This bin had the wrong items twice this week" is a conversation, not a guess.
Produce your first monthly report. At the end of month three, pull your first report and compare it to the baseline you set on day 30. Our guide to the waste management KPIs worth tracking covers the full set. Four numbers are enough to start:
- Diversion rate this month versus your baseline
- Total waste by weight, so you can see the trend
- Contamination rate, so you catch a slipping stream early
- Cost avoided on landfill, plus rebate earned on recyclables
The report is drawn from weighed pickups, not estimates. So it stands up when your board, a customer's procurement team or a council inspector asks. That record is the real output of the 90 days. The diversion rate is the headline. The documentation is the proof under it.
Keep the programme running past day 90
Ninety days gives you a working programme, not a finished one. What keeps it improving is routine, not another project.
Keep reporting monthly, because quarterly numbers hide problems until they are expensive. Watch contamination first. It quietly erodes a good programme, and a spike means the signage or the briefings need a refresh.
Once your first two or three streams run clean, add another, such as food waste or a specific plastic grade. When you are ready, roll the same playbook out to your next site. Reuse the bins, signage and collector setup you have already proven. Our zero-waste ladder shows the stages beyond a first programme.
The 90 days above are the whole plan: audit, infrastructure, proof. Tell us your sites and the vendors you use today, and we'll map your first 90 days with you. Book a Consultation to get started.
