A review of the pre-assessment and assessment techniques used in waste minimisation audits

Waste minimisation is a useful tool for reducing raw material and utility consumption and consequently the generation of waste. A specific area, in which it has been successfully applied by industry with significant financial and environmental savings, is water minimisation. Recent years have seen the development of a large number of pre-assessment and assessment techniques for respectively identifying waste minimisation focus areas (opportunities) or options (solutions) during a waste minimisation audit. This paper critically reviews these techniques and assesses their relative merits. The pre-assessment techniques are analysed in terms of their ease and speed of implementation, whilst the usefulness and applications of the available general assessment techniques are considered. WaterSA Vol.30 (2) 2004: 131-141