Industry Averages vs. IWS Performance: Why the Gap Is So Wide
In the label and consumer packaging manufacturing industry, landfill avoidance is often discussed, but rarely achieved at a meaningful level. When you look at actual industry data, the gap between what is typical and what is possible becomes impossible to ignore. That gap is where IWS operates.
What the Industry Is Actually Achieving
Based on industry reporting, sustainability case studies, and national materials recovery data, landfill avoidance rates across U.S. label and consumer packaging manufacturers typically falls between 15% and 35% annually. For many of the most common pre-consumer scrap materials generated in this sector, the numbers are even more concerning:
• Flexible plastic films are landfilled or incinerated at rates of 70% to 90%
• Multi-layer and laminated packaging materials see disposal rates of 80% to 95%
• Composite paper-plastic materials often exceed 50% disposal, due to contamination and limited recycling markets
These materials are largely excluded from municipal recycling systems and have very limited commercial recycling pathways. As a result, most manufacturers are left with disposal as the default outcome, regardless of sustainability goals. Here you can view the Consumer Packaging and Label Manufacturing Waste Recovery Statistics [insert Jim’s pdf].
How IWS Customers Compare
In direct contrast, IWS customer projects consistently achieve 90% to 95% landfill avoidance, even when handling the same difficult materials that drive poor industry-wide performance. This is not a marginal improvement. It is a fundamentally different outcome.
While the industry diverts a small fraction of material away from landfill, IWS customers divert nearly all of it. The difference between 20% and 90% landfill avoidance is not operational fine-tuning, it is a complete shift in how waste is managed.
Why the Difference Is So Significant
The industry average reflects a disposal-first model. IWS operates on a value-first model. Most manufacturers rely on traditional waste hauling contracts that prioritize lowest-cost disposal, not recovery. Materials are categorized broadly, mixed unnecessarily, and sent to landfill or incineration because no recovery pathway was designed upstream.
At IWS, landfill avoidance is engineered intentionally. We identify beneficial reuse and recovery pathways before materials ever leave the facility. We align processing partners, logistics, and material specifications to support diversion at scale, including alternative engineered fuel applications and specialized recycling solutions that most haulers do not offer. The result is not incremental diversion, but is systemic avoidance.
Industry Average Is Not the Benchmark
Too often, manufacturers measure success against industry averages that are already underperforming. A 25% landfill avoidance rate may look acceptable on paper if everyone else is doing the same, but it still means that the majority of leftover material is being wasted. IWS does not benchmark against averages. We measure against what is technically and operationally achievable. Our customer data shows that landfill avoidance above 90% is not aspirational. It is repeatable, measurable, and sustainable when waste is managed as a material asset instead of a liability.
The Bottom Line
The industry average tells you what most companies accept, whereas IWS performance shows what happens when waste is managed differently. The difference between 15% to 35% and 90% to 95% landfill avoidance is not a marketing claim. It is the result of strategy, expertise, and execution built specifically for the realities of modern manufacturing waste. If your performance mirrors the industry average, you are not failing. You are following the system as it exists. If you want profoundly better results, the system has to change, and that is what IWS promises to deliver.
