IHBMA

Case Study: Waste Management Consultation

The Client

The Irish Hardware and Building Materials Association (IHBMA) is the national association representing hardware, DIY, home decor, building supplies, electrical, homewares, garden and agricultural sectors at retail, wholesale and manufacturing level.  It represents 600 members who between them employ 25,500 people in 800 outlets throughout Ireland.

The Challenge

The IHBMA recognised that many of its members wished to address their obligations under the Packaging Regulations.  The full extent of any particular retail member’s legal obligations had not been assessed, while local authorities were enforcing the regulations on a case-by-case basis.  At the same time, the compliance scheme Repak had acknowledged similarities within the sector, but had no method or protocol whereby an IHBMA member could cost effectively assess their obligation and join Repak with the least amount of effort. 

It was recognised that training and education on waste management needed to be delivered in order that IHBMA members became aware and acted on the obligations.

The Solution

Greenstreets first devised a statistical methodology that was agreed with the client, Repak, the Department of the Environment, and local authorities.  The objective was to produce a simple schedule of Repak compliance fees for the IHBMA retail members, obviate the need for individuals to complete complex Repak returns, halt site-specific local authority enforcement, and training IHBMA members on their obligations and waste management.  This involved sampling a range of members on packaging supplied and waste managed, performing multiple linear regression statistical analyses, reporting to each of the stakeholders for final agreement, and then providing training and training material on how to become compliant and manage waste.

By using Greenstreets method and project delivery, the IHBMA was able to make substantial cost saving for its members by:

• Identifying obligated members from non-obligated ones;
• Securing a deal on back fees with Repak;
• Eliminating the need to assess each site specifically;
• Eliminating the need to individual sites to produce site specific packaging reports