The SWEEP (Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Performance) Standard is the world’s only comprehensive, measurable framework covering the full waste system — from collection and source reduction to post-collection recovery and disposal — across environmental, economic, and social performance.
When we launched the first SWEEP standard, we piloted it through municipalities and waste services companies. The feedback was direct: the original standard that combined requirements for local government and industry was too broad, the documentation requirements were too burdensome, and performance thresholds didn’t reflect the actual range of reasonably achievable performance.
We took this feedback to heart and rebuilt SWEEP…and now we want your input.
The new SWEEP+ Pilot Standards 2.0— one exclusively for Local Governments, one exclusively for the Waste Management Industry — are the result of that work. They’re leaner, more targeted, and more defensible. Their requirements now focus exclusively on what the applicant actually controls and performance thresholds are calibrated more closely to what leading organizations are actually achieving in a post-covid world.
Both standards are open for public comment through the SWEEP website. If you work in municipal waste management, operate a waste hauling or material processing company, or advise organizations on sustainability performance — your experience and expert perspective is exactly what makes a standard credible.
Standards only work if they reflect reality. Help us get this right.