In an effort to promote proactive recycling and waste reduction practices within workplace environments, Legrand North America, the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, has released their Trash Madness toolkit, a document that shares the methodology they used during “Trash Madness;” a company-wide, employee competition ran in 2015, that helped Legrand promote their recycling and waste reduction program throughout several of their U.S locations. The document is available on their website, and can be downloaded by other organizations who are looking to establish a standardized approach to waste management.

During last year’s Trash Madness, 26 company sites competed head-to-head for five weeks in a bracket style tournament. In order to advance in each round, sites had to achieve the highest Recycling Compliance percentage score as calculated by a spot check audit procedure. Bonus points were also issued to sites whose employees had the highest participation in weekly contests.

Results from the 2015 Legrand North America Trash Madness competition improved the company’s cumulative Recycling Compliance score by 14% — from 82% to 96%. In addition, employees shared over 447 waste minimization ideas and more than 1,000 individuals participated in the weekly challenges which included pledges to give up bottled water and eliminate workspace trash cans.

“Having a competition that incentivizes proper recycling and waste reduction behaviors is a fun way to boost employee engagement and understanding around an organization’s sustainability program,” said Susan Rochford, VP, Energy Efficiency, Sustainability & Public Policy, Legrand North and Central America. “Our toolkit outlines the steps and methodology we used in hosting a successful competition, and in setting a foundation for long-term waste diversion strategies.”

The Trash Madness toolkit presents a step-by-step approach to executing the program and covers such planning steps as getting organized, measuring for success, employee participation, spreading awareness, and promoting best practices.

Prior to launching Trash Madness, Legrand’s waste streams were inconsistently labeled in many facilities and employees did not have a clear understanding of how to properly separate landfill waste from recyclables. Trash Madness was designed to address the lack of a standardized approach to waste management across several of Legrand’s facilities. The competition served as a mechanism to implement best practices in bin labeling as well as improving the knowledge of material sorting. In doing so, this event has supported the company’s waste diversion efforts as they aim to achieve their goal of zero waste to landfill by 2022.

“It’s important to remember that even after completing Trash Madness, the lessons learned require regular reinforcement to become a permanent foundation of a company’s culture,” commented Rochford. “We strongly encourage other companies to hold their own Trash Madness competition, and engage their employees in minimizing waste and diverting materials from the landfill.”

Legrand North America’s Trash Madness Toolkit can be downloaded by visiting: http://www.legrand.us/aboutus/sustainability/high-performance-buildings/tools-and-downloads.aspx