Ohio’s Franklin County Targets Businesses to Boost Recycling

With industrial and commercial sectors generating up to 75 to 85 percent of the trash going to landfills, businesses have the potential to impact diversion rates meaningfully. In Franklin County, Ohio—the state’s most populated region and home to Ohio’s capital—a waste characterization study found that businesses generate 60 percent of what ends up landfilled. Sixty percent was compelling enough for the Solid Waste Authority of Ohio (SWACO) to try and figure out how to motivate companies to lessen their load on its disposal site.

And so, the Authority’s Business Recycling Champion program was born. The new initiative is designed to help companies start sustainable recycling programs or to take their existing programs further. 

Each business can tap into up to $2,000 in financial assistance, discounts on containers and signage, as well as technical support including analyzing streams, identifying which ones to target for best outcomes, help with bin placement and other strategies.

For now, SWACO is reaching out to small and midsized businesses. Unlike Ohio’s largest companies, including P&G, Timken, Whirlpool, O-I Glass, and Wendy's, who have internal teams to implement ESG and zero-waste plans, smaller companies rarely have resources to hire staff dedicated to sustainability efforts, notes Joe Lombardi, executive director of SWACO.

Yet, in the 41 communities the Authority serves, he has found small and medium-sized businesses have an entrepreneurial, progressive mindset, and they are paying attention to environmental issues.

“They see that their customers want to feel good about where they dine and shop. They see that not only their customers, but their employees too want to know what they are doing in terms of recycling. And these businesses want to be part of the [materials management] solution. But they need help getting from point a to point b,” Lombardi says.

Overall, Central Ohio is making headway in its work to drive a circular economy, with a growing number of companies hungry for recyclables for their operations. The way Lombardi sees it, knowing that businesses in their peer groups need these materials is yet another compelling reason for companies to onboard and become recycling “champions.”

Businesses are looking for glass, metals, and or packaging materials—

with cardboard especially in demand. Recovering more cardboard could help solve two problems: feed that unmet demand and make a meaningful dent in the landfill pile up.

“About 20,000 truckloads of cardboard are going to our landfill from the commercial sector each year.  If you lined those trucks up, they would stretch from Columbus to Cleveland,” says Hanna Greer-Brown, SWACO’s director of communications, adding that Ohio’s paper mills and packaging companies want more corrugated cardboard.

Mukha Spa is the first official Business Recycling Champion program “graduate.”

Sanito Mendoza, president of Mukha Spa, heard about the initiative through the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.  What first caught his attention was the discounted recycling bins, but he ended up tapping into more.

“SWACO staff toured my salon and showed me what can and cannot be recycled but also what is biodegradable and what is reusable,” Mendoza says.

Now he’s replacing disposable make up sponges with reusable ones. He is asking customers to bring their empty skincare bottles and/or makeup containers in for a 10 percent discount on all purchases. And he plans to recycle more, realizing he can save money while running a greener company.

 The teaching piece fit in with what Mendoza was looking to do too.

“I want to educate my staff that it’s important to recycle because it helps protect our ecosystem and wildlife, reducing demand for raw materials and cutting climate-changing carbon emissions. 

“Hopefully letting our clients know that we are members of SWACO will generate a buzz so they can also take part in recycling and help reduce waste.”

For companies, setting up for success begins with knowing where they are to inform realistic recycling targets.

“Making an achievable goal with smaller milestone goals allows a business to create feasible programs,” advises Erin Oulton, RRS consultant.

She tells businesses just getting started to begin by inspecting their disposal costs and waste material compositions.

“Materials like cardboard and metal can be recycled easily, reducing disposal expenses and potentially generating revenue.”

Those at the beginning of their journey don’t have to go it alone. Businesses can contact local community waste and recycling coordinators; many, like SWACO, offer help with contracts and right-sizing recycling collection programs, Oulton says.

Businesses that have already established programs can take their work further by focusing on three areas, says Charlie Ramer, senior associate consultant, RRS. Those areas are employee education, “Green Teams,” and purchasing practices.

“Effective employee education programs are comprehensive and ongoing,” he says.

He advises embedding information about company recycling practices in new employee orientation training and providing refresher programs for other team members to ensure everyone understands the goals and program.

Green Teams are internal teams focused on realistic goals, strategies, and progress benchmarks.

“These teams help build company and cultural buy-in while guiding efforts like internal manufacturing and business processes and identifying pre-consumer waste-saving opportunities,” Ramer says.

His pointers on internal purchasing practices: “Make sure [to prioritize] using recycled materials as feedstock, reintroducing waste materials back into the manufacturing process, and ensuring that product packaging is minimal and easily recyclable.”

As SWACO pushes forward on its new business recycling program, it builds on other work, including two flagship initiatives: Recycle Right, which is an educational campaign to teach residents and businesses what they can recycle, and Save More Than Food, to teach how and why to recover food waste for composting. 

The Business Recycling Champion program is modeled after yet another initiative developed for school districts, which has done well to boost diversion rates.

“One key takeaway [from the School Recycling Champion program] is that it was important to have a dedicated staff to support our school district customers who had questions as they were getting started. The other main finding is that it was as important to make sure we were financially supporting them to the extent feasible to us. We are applying these learnings [to the Business Recycling Champion program],” Greer-Brown says.

SWACO just hired a second staff person to promote the business-geared initiative and is building a case study based on Mukha’s story to show what the program would look like for smaller businesses. Next on the agenda is to recruit larger companies, then build a case study illustrating how a recycling program may play out for them. 

“The more our team is out there talking about the program, and explaining financial help available to get started, the more able we will be to get the ball rolling,” Lombardi says.“Once it’s rolling, it’s up to the businesses to continue, and we will be there to help them along the way.”