What-goes-where tool for residents now available to waste management agencies

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August 10, 2012 - Waste Nothing’s what-goes-where tool for residents is now being made available to local governments and other waste management agencies. By making information about proper disposal widely and easily accessible, agencies can improve customer service while better serving the environment.

Waste management agencies maintain excellent resources on the correct procedures for trash, recyclables, electronic and household hazardous waste, organics, and often local donation options as well. Too few residents are taking advantage of this, resulting in confusion and contamination, and lowering the value of collected recyclables and the quality of compost.
Waste Nothing will take the agency’s information and make it available through a simple-to-use website and mobile application, made to fit in with the agency’s existing website. Residents can access all the suggested ways to dispose of any item from trash to reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, and anything else. Nearby facilities are shown on a map with links to directions.

“I got tired of walking down the street, seeing still-usable items get thrown out with the trash.
There are so many great ways to reduce waste that anyone can do, from donating old eye glasses to opting for paperless billing,” said Michael Fagan, Waste Nothing’s founder. “I wanted to create a single place people could go that would bring this information together. Few local governments have the resources to build and maintain such a resource in-house. That’s why I built Waste Nothing as a service any agency could afford.”

The agency’s information is supplemented by tips from charities which accept items for donation, stores which buy used goods, and ideas from the general public. During the past year’s unofficial pilot in Toronto, notes Fagan, “I received a thank you from a local charity for the donations received as a result of the publicity through Waste Nothing. It is stories like that which make this truly worthwhile.”

Waste Nothing can be accessed at http://wastenothing.ca. Information for governments and waste management agencies can be found at http://wastenothing.ca/about/get.