Facility Waste Audit

Description

The Country Club of Lincoln partnered with Recycle Lincoln and an Environmental Health Educator (EHE) to complete a full facility waste audit. A bonus was that the EHE was a former employee of CCL and had worked with us during college. His deep knowledge of the facility and our operation helped the enhance the quality of the audit. We had quality discussions about how to improve operations from someone who was an expert in environmental health and also had a working knowledge of CCL.

Suggestions presented by the EHE have already been implemented into our daily operations. Water bottle refilling stations will be installed on the golf course this spring, biodegradable Styrofoam cups are ordered, new recycling bins will be on the golf course, pool deck and in back of house service areas along with various other operational improvements.

Implementation

Our EHE from the local health department spent the morning surveying products used, recycled, diverted and discarded during a busy day in June. Surveys were completed by our maintenance director, superintendent and clubhouse manager about quantities of items recycled throughout the year. The goal was to determine our current waste diversion and present opportunities to lessen our contribution to the waste stream.

After completing their field work our EHE prepared a report summarizing our current diversion rate and recommendations to improve it.

The good news was we were meeting the citywide goal for waste diversion! However, not one to rest on our laurels we have been implementing new ideas and suggestions throughout the facility.

Both member and staff reactions have been positive. Having a document that describes the strides we are already taking was beneficial to be seen and discussed and opened the door for conversations on what can be improved on going forward.