Field note · 11 min
Find out what your empties are worth before you call anyone.
- Duration
- 5 working days
- Effort
- ≈ 20 min a day
- Consultants required
- None
Send us your audit
Finished the count? Send the numbers and we will price every line — including the ones where the honest answer is 'not worth moving'.
Why do this before calling suppliers
Every packaging supplier, waste hauler and recycler will happily assess your site for free. Those assessments are not dishonest, but each one is shaped by what that company sells. A hauler counts tons. A box supplier counts purchases. A recycler counts bales. None of them counts reusable containers you are currently destroying, because nobody except a reuse company has a reason to look for them.
Five days of your own counting makes every subsequent conversation a negotiation between informed parties. That is worth considerably more than the twenty minutes a day it costs.
Day one: define the streams
Walk the site and list every place packaging leaves. Typically: the compactor, the baler if you have one, a pallet stack, a bay of accumulated bulk boxes, and at least one forgotten corner that nobody has inventoried since a previous manager. List them, do not value them yet.
Days two to four: count
For three consecutive production days, count what goes into each stream. One tally sheet per stream, one person responsible, no estimating. Record: item type, size where obvious, condition in three bands (clean / worn / damaged), and quantity.
| Stream | Record | Unit | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk boxes to compactor | Count, size, condition band | Boxes/day | Usually the single largest recoverable value on site |
| Bulk boxes accumulating | Standing count, size | Boxes | Space cost plus material value together |
| Shipping cartons | Count, single size or mixed | Cartons/day | Single-size lots are reusable stock, not scrap |
| Loose corrugated | Volume or weight | lb/day | Only worth baling above roughly four tons a month |
| Pallets | Count, A / B / broken | Pallets/week | Frequently forgotten; frequently valuable |
| Bulk bags | Count, ratio if printed | Bags/week | 6:1 bags have real value; 5:1 do not |
| Disposal cost | Pulls, tonnage, invoice | $/month | The other half of the equation entirely |
The most common audit result we see is a site that was paying three hundred dollars a month to dispose of roughly nine hundred dollars a month of material.
Day five: value it
Multiply your counts by indicative buying prices — ours are published openly on the pricing page, and you are welcome to use them as a benchmark whoever you eventually trade with. Then set that against your current disposal cost. Both halves matter: avoided cost is as real as revenue and usually easier to approve internally.
- 01
Count for three days
Three consecutive production days is enough to see a pattern without becoming a project. Avoid unusual weeks.
- 02
Extrapolate carefully
Multiply to a month, then discount by ten per cent. Counting weeks are always tidier than ordinary weeks.
- 03
Value both sides
Material value plus avoided disposal cost. The second number is what usually gets the decision approved.
- 04
Then call suppliers
With numbers in hand, you can evaluate any offer in about ninety seconds — including ours.
The three findings almost everyone gets
- You generate about twice as many reusable containers as you thought. Bulk boxes are invisible because they arrive full and leave flat.
- Your pallets are worth more than you assumed. Even broken ones have value, and most sites pay to have them removed.
- Your cartons are being baled. Single-size carton lots are reusable stock worth forty cents to a dollar eighty each; as OCC they are worth a few cents a pound.
What to do with the answer
If the numbers are small, do nothing — and that is a legitimate result worth five days of effort to establish. If they are not, you now have a specification for what you want from a supplier rather than a vague sense that there might be something in it. Send the sheet to two or three companies and compare the answers against your own arithmetic.
Questions
Auditing, answered.
How long does this really take?
Do I need a scale?
What do most sites discover?
Templates
The tally sheet, written out.
Copy this onto a clipboard. One sheet per stream, one person responsible, three consecutive production days.
| Column | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date and shift | Day and shift number | Patterns differ by shift more than people expect |
| Stream | Compactor, baler, pallet stack, bay, other | Value differs enormously by destination |
| Item type | Bulk box, carton, pallet, bag, film, waste | Determines which price band applies |
| Size | Where obvious — 48 × 40 × 36, etc. | Single-size lots are worth far more than mixed |
| Condition | Clean / worn / damaged — three bands only | Finer grading is a supplier's job, not yours |
| Quantity | Count, not estimate | Estimates run about half of reality, consistently |
| Notes | Anything unusual | 'Always wet on Mondays' is the kind of note that finds a cause |
Turning counts into money
The valuation sheet.
Use published benchmarks — ours or anyone else's — and be conservative. The point is an order of magnitude, not a forecast.
- 01
Multiply counts by conservative unit values
Take the bottom of each published band rather than the middle. If the case still works at the bottom, it definitely works.
- 02
Extrapolate, then discount ten per cent
Counting weeks are always tidier than ordinary weeks. Everyone's are.
- 03
Add avoided disposal cost
Compactor pulls, haulage, tipping. This half is as real as the revenue half and usually easier to get approved internally.
- 04
Add the space
Square footage held by accumulated packaging at your rate per square foot. Frequently larger than the material value.
- 05
Subtract the labour honestly
Sorting time at a loaded rate. If it exceeds the value, the answer is that the audit was worth doing and the change is not.
- 06
Then call three suppliers
With numbers in hand you can evaluate any offer in about ninety seconds — including ours.
Do the count. Then let us price it.
We will value every line honestly, including the ones where the answer is that it is not worth moving.