MRc7: Solid Waste Management—Ongoing Consumables

Don, you have a problem. Any building undertaking LEED EB is going to need specific numbers for the ongoing consumables on a building by building approach. The 'good' news is that housekeeping are collecting daily. In this situation you'll need to 'hold' the waste and recycling for your LEED building to one side so that you can accurately quantify what volume is being recycled. I suggest that for a specific period (based on time lapse between the waste/recycle hauler pickups) you set up some sort of separate binning for waste and recycle that you can firmly say that the contents of both came from the building. Once that happens you'll have a baseline for what comes out of your building and % recycles. Now go back to the trash/recycle hauler and compare their diversion rates against what you're getting. If they're close then you could use the haulers details to create your on-going numbers. However this may be a long shot and you may have to resort to providing long term separate binning in an attempt to reach robust numbers. Finally...all this is dependent on your local recycling company being able to handle recyclables. For re-certification you'll need to show constant numbers of a % rate...so if you're intention is to pursue LEED EB in perpetuity then setting up a separate system may be a great advantage

Don, My apologies for missing this question. In general we wait until the bin is about to be picked up by the hauler and then at that point do an audit. Usually this is the day before or the morning of the pickup. These numbers are then what you would use as the 'waste audit'. Based on those calculations you will then be able to assess each time prior to pickup how the waste and recycling number are progressing. The answer given above in the FAQ's for LEED EBOM mc7 are perfect for what you need.