WASTE AS A UTILITY
The WATS methodology - managing waste like a utility
Measure waste like a utility and finally take control of what comes next.
THE SHIFT
Unmeasured waste is unmanaged waste. By tracking materials as a core utility with WATS, your team gains the clear visibility needed to manage waste responsibly, cut inefficiencies, and drive smarter operational decisions.
THE WATS METHODOLOGY
Don’t just report on waste. Improve it.
Waste is an essential utility, but unlike water and energy, measuring all waste streams across all sites is rarely consistent or consolidated.
WATS changes that, turning fragmented information into a continuous resource across every site, vendor, service, and waste stream.
A management system, not a reporting exercise
Most organizations collect what is available, calculate annual totals, and prepare a report. By then, the opportunity to investigate a spike, fix a service issue, or prevent unnecessary costs may be gone.
WATS starts earlier. It treats waste data as the foundation for better decisionmaking, not the end of a reporting process.
The WATS Methodology
Measure what is actually happening
Build an accurate operational picture across services, costs, materials, vendors, and locations.
Create a common operating language
Standardize information so sustainability, operations, finance, procurement, facilities, and vendors have the same facts.
Connect evidence to decisions
Use the data to answer practical questions. Where are costs rising? Which services are mismatched? Which locations need attention? Where are materials being lost?
Improve continuously
Measure each intervention, learn from results, and identify the next opportunity.
These four steps put the methodology into practice:
01
Collect
Consolidate invoices, hauler reports, vendor exports, spreadsheets, audits, site knowledge, and more.
Enables: automated data gathering, fewer gaps, less spreadsheet work, and a durable record of operational knowledge.
02
Digitize
Align material names, units, weights, costs, container sizes, service levels, and pickup frequencies.
Enables: apples-to-apples comparisons, stronger data quality, and more trustworthy reporting.
03
Normalize
Track performance across costs, volumes, diversion, services, vendors, sites, and timefames.
Enables: earlier detection of irregularities, faster investigation, targeted interventions, and clearer priorities.
04
Optimize
Turn visibility into focused operational change.
Enables: operational and financial efficiency by automating cost reviews and right-sizing your waste services. Teams gain the real-time visibility needed to slash contamination, elevate diversion performance, accelerate decision-making, and measure real bottom-line results.
BETTER MANAGEMENT
What better management unlocks
Control costs
Understand expenses, find irregularities, and align service with actual need.
Improve operations
Compare locations, identify what works, and scale successful practices.
Make sustainability actionable
Connect environmental goals to specific operational decisions.
Strengthen reporting and compliance
Maintain traceable information ready for internal and external requirements.
Build the foundation for circularity
See what materials are moving, where they go, and where resources can remain in use.
Make waste measurable. Then make it better.
WATS gives teams the methodology and shared language to move from collecting data to using it.
From reacting to waste to actively managing it.
