In the waste management industry, Mass Balance refers to the accounting and tracking of materials entering and leaving a facility or system. It is a fundamental concept used to quantify and monitor the flow of waste, recyclables, and by-products within the system. How much waste or material is actually on the floor of your site at any given point in time? Mass Balance should tell you!
Mass Balance involves measuring and documenting the quantities of materials at various stages of the resource recovery process, but in this post, we’re focused on the facility. By accurately tracking the inputs and outputs of materials from a facility, waste managers can assess the efficiency of their operations, identify potential regulatory risks in terms of licenced tonnes accepted and stockpile volumes on site, and evaluate the commercial and environmental impacts of their material flows.
The purpose of Mass Balance reporting at waste management and resource recovery facilities is to ensure that there is no unaccounted loss or accumulation of material across processes or sites. It’s relevant and beneficial to landfills, transfer stations, MRFs and even resale or tip shops!! The process helps in identifying any discrepancies in regulatory reporting, such as unreported waste streams, illegal dumping, or inefficiencies in operational processes across a facility and by maintaining effective mass balance reporting, facilities can improve resource management, optimize recycling and recovery efforts, have confidence in regulatory compliance, and enhance measurable sustainability outcomes.Effective sites require accurate measurement and tracking of materials throughout the entire resource recovery process – from loads arriving at the gate to those materials sent to landfill or back out to third-party recyclers. Mass balance plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency of material flow and compliance. In this article, we delve into the insights shared by Lacey Webb, CEO of Resource Hub, about the importance of capturing comprehensive information in one location and utilizing transactional solutions to simplify and improve mass balance reporting, because it shouldn’t be complex or time-consuming.
“The one thing I can say that’s critical is ensuring that you’re actually capturing all the information you need to mass balance your site in one place. We need to know all of the weights or the loads that come into a facility in comparison to all the loads that leave a facility, plus all the internal movements within our facility, including volumes sent to landfill. These should all be transacted or captured in a single system or location. Hopefully, you’ve got a transactional solution as this location – so that you can then generate a report that tells you how much material you’ve got on the ground at any one point in time and can reconcile that the Ins less the Outs, adjusted for the Internals matches your approximates visible stock on hand. That is the secret to mass balance.” – Lacey Webb, CEO Resource Hub
According to Lacey, there are three key stages for effective mass balance.
- Comprehensive Data Capture:
- Defining mass balance in waste management
- Weighing incoming and outgoing loads
- Accounting for internal movements and transfers
- Identifying and addressing potential discrepancies regularly – at minimum once a Quarter. Finding the problems sooner will nip them in the bud.
- Streamline and optimise for efficiency:
- Exploring transactional solutions for waste management sites that capture all of these movements.
- Leveraging integrated software platforms
- Ensuring seamless data capture and analysis
- Training staff and promoting data accuracy
- Continuous monitoring and refining of mass balance systems
- Put your data and systems to work, Leveraging Mass Balance Reports for Decision-Making:
- Get actionable insights from your data reporting
- Evaluate waste quantities at any given time
- Utilize data to improve resource allocation and waste reduction strategies
A comprehensive and simplified mass balance approach is crucial for efficient waste management and more and more is becoming a required report that we must submit to government regulators. By capturing all necessary data at the gatehouse – even internal movements – and utilizing transactional solutions that are fit for purpose, facilities can improve reporting accuracy, enhance operational transparency, and make informed decisions to maximise compliance.
At Resource Hub, we have a load of experience dealing with improving processes to make sure that Mass Balance Reporting is a few button presses rather than a couple of hours every month. If you want an expert to look at how you’re currently doing things to see if your process can be streamlined, get in touch!
Give us a call on 1300 668 445 or submit a contact form and we’ll be in touch!
