What is a Waste Consultant?

Waste consultants are also outsourced service providers who make arrangements on behalf of others to handle, transport, dispose or recover controlled waste, but do not handle, transport or dispose or recover the waste themselves. Consultants may also provide consolidated invoicing and call center and/or web-based customer service.

The most important differences between waste brokers and waste consultants are ones of compensation and control. While brokers are paid by marking up a discounted rate they’ve negotiated for a client, waste consultants are most often paid for performance. For no upfront fees, the consultant will review the client’s waste program and attempt to design a more cost effective solution. The lower they drive an organization’s costs, the more they earn - and the more the client saves. Since they are highly motivated to drive costs to rock bottom levels, consultants are known for presenting creative, viable solutions.

Waste consultants are successful in reducing client’s costs because they have the incentive to focus on areas that firms have not had the time, talent, knowledge, or inclination to attack. Many waste consultants have waste industry or cost accounting background, and they zero in on the things that are often overlooked by line management and the things that nobody gets around to reviewing or changing due to more urgent or more critical pressures..

Any single one of these elements affords limited return to the organization if fixed, but combined all these savings and fixes afford massive returns to the company’s overall profits, both immediate and long term. Furthermore, since many consultants ask for no upfront fees, they bear all of the financial risk because they believe they will succeed in lowering costs..

Some larger waste consultant firms risk between $10,000 and $20,000 for every $100,000 the client spends on waste. When working with consultants, clients enjoy control just as if they were operating hauler-direct. This is because the consultant acts as the client’s agent while the client retains the ability to veto recommendations that may not make business sense.