Most waste compounds fail for one simple reason. They are designed for waste to sit there, not for humans to use them under pressure. On a busy site, people have targets, forklifts are moving, pallets are stacking up, and nobody wants a lecture at the bins. If the compound adds friction, segregation collapses. The result is predictable. Mixed loads, higher fees, more collections rejected, and a constant feeling that waste is running the site rather than the other way round.
Good waste management is not about telling people to care more. It is about building a system where the correct action is the fastest action. The best compounds feel obvious. You can walk in and know where everything goes. You can see what is full. You can move safely. You can tip without guessing. When waste management works, it also shows up in your housekeeping, your fire risk profile, and your compliance story.
This is an operations focused guide to building or fixing a site waste area so segregation actually happens. It covers layout, container types, weather protection, traffic flow, safety, fire risk, signage, and daily routines. It also includes practical examples for mixed recycling, cardboard, film, metal, wood, WEEE, hazardous cages, and liquid waste.
Start with the real purpose of the compound
A waste compound is not storage. It is a process step. Treat it like a mini production line with inputs, sorting decisions, and outputs.
Your goals should be specific:
Keep walk time low for operators
Keep forklift movements simple and separated from pedestrians
Prevent cross contamination
Prevent rain and wind from ruining materials
Control fire load and ignition sources
Make it impossible to “just dump it here”
If you frame it this way, layout decisions become easier because you are designing a flow, not a parking area.
Layout that forces the right behaviour
The highest value change you can make is to separate the compound into two zones.
A fast drop zone for daily waste streams
A controlled zone for specialist and risky streams
The fast drop zone should be closest to where waste is generated or at least closest to the main internal route. It should include mixed recycling, cardboard, film, wood, and scrap metal. These are high volume and they need speed. The controlled zone sits behind a gate or barrier and includes WEEE, hazardous cages, batteries, aerosols, liquid waste, and any quarantined material.
This split stops the common failure where a rare item, like a paint tin or a laptop, ends up in the nearest open skip because “it is all waste anyway”.
Container order matters
Put the most used streams first, right on the natural approach line. People do not walk to the back to do the right thing. If cardboard is your biggest stream, it should not be the farthest container.
A practical sequence for many factories is:
Cardboard
Film
Mixed recycling
Wood
Metal
Why this order works:
Cardboard and film are often generated together at goods in and packing
Mixed recycling catches the awkward clean packaging bits
Wood and metal are heavier and more likely to be moved by forklift
Reduce walk time without creating a dumping magnet
If the compound is far away, segregation will never be perfect. If you put one big skip near the line, everything ends up in it. The solution is to create micro stations that feed the compound.
Use small, clearly labelled containers at point of use, then move them to the main compound on a routine. For example:
At goods in: a film cage and a cardboard cage
At packing: a film sack holder and a cardboard stillage
At maintenance: a small “oily rags and contaminated packaging” bin and a metal offcut bin
At offices: a mixed recycling station and a confidential waste option if needed
The key is this. Every micro station must have a defined emptying route and ownership. If nobody owns it, it becomes the dumping magnet you were trying to avoid.
Choose container types that match the material and the handling method
The wrong container invites contamination and unsafe handling. Match the container to how the material behaves.
Mixed recycling
Use enclosed skips or large wheeled bins with lids if wind is an issue. Mixed recycling is light and will blow. It also attracts “just chuck it in” behaviour, so it needs the clearest visuals at the opening.
Cardboard
Use a covered or semi covered area, ideally a baler if volume justifies it. If you rely on open skips, rain turns your cardboard into a wet surcharge. A simple roof canopy over the cardboard bay often pays for itself quickly.
Film
Use dedicated cages or stillages, not open skips. Film compacts and tangles. If it mixes with rigid plastics, it loses value. A good film cage has a narrow opening or a simple restraint that stops people throwing rigid packaging in without thinking.
Metal
Use a metal skip or a heavy duty bin that can take sharp edges. Provide a separate container for stainless or aluminium if you generate enough to justify it. Mixed metals reduce scrap value and create sorting charges. Also put a magnet bar or a quick visual guide at the metal drop point to stop plastic attached parts going in.
Wood
Use a skip with clear rules on treated wood, painted wood, and MDF if your waste contractor separates grades. If you do not separate, make that explicit so nobody wastes time sorting into imaginary categories.
WEEE
Use lockable cages with signage that lists examples. Screens, keyboards, scanners, handhelds, cables, and small appliances. WEEE must be protected from rain and casual theft. It also needs a route to prevent “someone will deal with it later”.
Hazardous cages
Use a locked, ventilated cage with bunding if liquids are stored. List specific items that belong there, such as aerosols, oily rags, paint tins, chemicals, contaminated absorbents, and batteries. The worst contamination events often start when hazardous items are left loose in general waste.
Liquid waste
Liquid waste needs a dedicated bunded area with labelled containers and a method for verifying contents. Provide funnels, drip trays, absorbent kits, and a spill response station. If operators have to hunt for a funnel, they will pour badly, spill, and then walk away.
Weather protection is not optional
Rain and wind do three things. They add weight, they degrade material quality, and they spread debris.
Protect at least these streams:
Cardboard
Film
WEEE
Hazardous
A simple canopy with side screening on the prevailing wind direction can dramatically reduce mess. Also consider drainage. If water pools in the compound, you will get slippery surfaces, algae, and contaminated runoff. Your compound should have a cleanable surface and a defined drainage plan.
Traffic flow and safety that survive real shift patterns
Design for forklift flow first, then build pedestrian safety around it.
Use one way flow if you can. Entry on one side, exit on the other. Mark turning circles. Keep visibility lines clear. Put containers so the forklift can approach, tip, and reverse without crossing a pedestrian walkway.
Create a pedestrian drop lane for hand carried waste. That lane should be physically separated with barriers, not just paint. People will cut corners when they are busy. Give them a safe corner to do it.
Lighting matters too. If your compound is used on early shifts and late shifts, poor lighting will cause contamination because people cannot read signs and they will tip in the wrong place.
Fire risk is a design problem, not a training problem
Cardboard and film are high fire load. Batteries and aerosols are ignition sources. Wood adds volume and fuel. You must design spacing, segregation, and monitoring to reduce risk.
Place high fire load containers away from buildings, doors, and ignition points. Keep battery and aerosol storage in the controlled zone. Do not allow piles to form on the ground. Ground piles are the start of “stuff gets dumped here” and they also make firefighting harder.
Keep clear access for emergency services. That means no blocking routes with pallets, no temporary storage in front of skips, and no ad hoc cages appearing in walkways.
Signage that stops dumping, not signage that looks nice
The best waste compound signage is hard to ignore and easy to follow.
Use big item photos from your site. Include the top five common mistakes for each container. Put the sign at the point of tipping, not on the fence. Add a simple “if unsure do this” rule, like “ask your supervisor” or “use the quarantine cage”.
For the dumping problem, add a quarantine option that is not punitive. A clearly labelled “quarantine for unsure items” cage in the controlled zone prevents the lazy choice of general waste. It also creates a feedback loop. If quarantine is filling with one specific item, your signage or your procurement rules are failing.
Daily routines that keep the compound usable
A compound that starts clean can become chaos in a week without routines. Daily routines are not paperwork. They are the operating system.
A practical routine looks like this:
Morning check for contamination at the top layer of each container
Check fullness and trigger collections before overflow starts
Sweep and pick loose debris
Confirm WEEE and hazardous cages are locked and labelled
Inspect bunding and spill kits
Record any recurring contamination source and act on it the same day
Assign ownership by area. The biggest mistake is making one person responsible for everything. Instead, give each department a responsibility for the streams they generate, with a central coordinator for contractor liaison.
Examples of compound set ups that work
A medium sized warehouse might have:
Under canopy: cardboard baler and film cages
Adjacent: mixed recycling lidded skip
Next: wood skip and metal skip with separate bin for aluminium
Behind lockable gate: WEEE cage, hazardous cage, battery drum, aerosol container, and a bunded liquid waste bay with labelled drums and funnels
Clear pedestrian lane with barriers, plus a forklift lane with one way flow and marked turning space
A factory with heavy maintenance might add:
A dedicated contaminated packaging bin near maintenance that is emptied to the hazardous cage daily
A swarf and oil contaminated metal bin that is kept separate from clean scrap
The compound should make good behaviour faster
If you want segregation to happen, the compound has to behave like a tool, not like a punishment. People do what the environment makes easy. Put the right containers where work actually happens. Protect materials from weather. Separate risky streams behind controlled access. Design traffic flow so nobody has to take unsafe shortcuts. Then back it up with daily routines that catch issues before they become rejected loads.
When you get it right, waste stops being a constant irritant. It becomes predictable. Collections happen on time. Materials stay clean. Walk time drops. Safety improves. And your waste management costs stop spiralling for reasons that feel invisible until you fix the compound that created them.