ABSTRACT
Talking about waste, a business reporter for National Public Radio made a very keen observation. Northern Telecom created a novel and very public way to talk about its accomplishments in waste prevention. Responsibility for waste management was centralized, and the emphasis shifted from waste minimization to waste prevention. Accounting for waste prevention may present a challenge. Unlike financial accounting, for instance, waste accounting is a new idea, often seeming to lack well-understood principles and well-identified, reliable centers of information. To measure the amount of waste prevented, the company set up a procedure to accumulate shipping invoices for all return shipments of packaging. Information about the kinds of waste that are being eliminated, their significance in quantity and cost, and the resulting savings, must be communicated constantly. Each manufacturing division of Polaroid selected a product to represent its operations and use in normalizing waste byproduct production.
