Measure & Submit
Measure Your Waste (Pre & Post)
Use this guidance to conduct both your pre and post assessments of the amount of waste you are sending to landfill, recycling, and composting (if you currently compost), to establish your baseline waste-line, and to measure your success at the end of the challenge:
- Empty all of your garbage and recycling bins on your regular garbage and recycling collection day. If you have separate depot bins for items like refundables, glass, etc., take them to the depot so you’re starting fresh.
- Then proceed to collect your waste as you normally would for one week or as appropriate based on your collection frequency.
*For commercial waste, if your waste collection is more frequent than weekly, use a shorter timeframe that reflects your pick-up frequency, ideally at least two days of waste.
- Determine the size of your garbage and recycling bins/bags. If using different sizes/volumes, be sure to record their specific volumes so that they can be transferred to the online form once you are ready with the values. This information is critical for accurate data collection. Please see the infographic below for common bin sizes.
- Visually estimate how full each bin/bag is (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). Write this information down for each bin or bag as you will need to enter it in the next step.
- To calculate the volume of waste in each bin/bag, multiply the bin size by how full it is, in terms of percentage. For example, a 60 L bin was about half (50%) full when emptied, then there is 30 L (60 L x 0.5 = 30L) of waste in it. Write this information down for each bin or bag as you will need to enter it in the next step.
- Take photos of your waste and recycling situation e.g. sorting practices, placement of bins, labelling, signage, etc. so that you can upload these in the form as a visual record of your findings.
Submit Your Results
Once you have measured your waste, recycling, and/or compost, and have the information ready to submit, click the appropriate button below, and follow these steps.
1. Enter your data into the appropriate form for each category of waste that you measured. We encourage you to take a screenshot or photo of the submission form for your records.
2. If you have any comments or observations, record them in the ‘’Remarks” section in the online form.
3. Use the “Supporting Images” section of the form to submit photos of your visual waste audit that show your pre or post-waste collection situation e.g. sorting practices, placement of bins, labelling, signage, etc. We really want to see how you started and what improvements you made!
Continue to Reduce and Monitor Your Waste
Visit the Reduce Your Waste page to continue learning about how to reduce your waste, and familiarize yourself with the links and resources in your community.
Contact Us — gowrc@greenstep.ca | Facebook | Instagram
