Building an effective community relations strategy for waste management

Waste management regularly receives a bad reputation. The tendency can be to forget that waste operators deliver essential services and benefit society. Responsible waste management and communication around responsible waste management are key to how your operations are viewed in your community. Without a thoughtful approach to community relations, operators risk alienating the very people they need to engage. A successful strategy requires more than compliance—it demands empathy, consistency and a relationship-first mindset.

The key pillars of an effective, successful community relations strategy for facility operators are based on proven best practices.

1. Invest in managing impacts.

The best way to avoid unwanted public attention is to prioritize minimizing and managing potential impacts. Brian Dermody, GHD business group leader for Landfill Operations, has seen this at sites time and time again.

“When I walk onto a landfill site, I can immediately see the level of care taken to keep the site clean. When I see employees cleaning trucks or removing litter around the site, I know those employees care about how the community sees the industry.”

Whether it’s odor complaints, litter or noise, the community needs to see that the landfill team is working actively to reduce disruptions. This means investing in technology, training and operational adjustments that show measurable improvements over time.

When impacts do occur, responsiveness is critical. A quick and transparent response builds trust. For example, if a neighbor reports excessive noise, sending a team member to investigate and follow up personally shows that the concern is taken seriously.

As another option, setting up a direct hotline to your facility can demonstrate your commitment to the community by making it easy for residents to share feedback and allowing you to respond quickly to their concerns. Over time, this builds a reputation for reliability, care and good customer service.

2. Build relationships, not just reputation.

A relationship-based approach is the heart of successful community engagement. Operators must prioritize their relationships with those living closest to the site because these relationships influence broader community sentiment.

Operators who excel in community relations develop one-on-one relationships with each neighbor. This isn’t a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing commitment. Regular check-ins, informal visits and personalized outreach help build familiarity and trust. Not all neighbors will speak up, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions or concerns. A successful community relations strategy includes proactive outreach to those who remain silent. By building relationships first, a level of trust already is established if an issue does arise.

Importantly, operators shouldn’t shy away from those who oppose their operations. Instead, they should maintain contact and work to strengthen relationships, even if they’re negative. For example, stopping by a neighbor’s house once a month to check in—even if they’ve previously complained—shows respect and persistence. When complaints arise, visiting the complainant in person at the time of the issue demonstrates accountability and a willingness to listen.

It is natural to shy away from conflict, and it can be uncomfortable to lean into it at first, but this approach turns opposition into dialogue and helps prevent small concerns from escalating into major conflicts.

3. Make community relations everyone’s responsibility.

Community relations shouldn’t be confined to a single department; it should be a shared responsibility across the organization. This is the ethos that Walker Environmental has instilled in its employees. According to Darren Fry, GHD project director, Environmental Division, “Every employee, from operations to administration, plays a role in shaping the community’s perception. For instance, when a litter crew is working in the neighborhood, they’re not just cleaning up; they’re ambassadors of the company.”

Behavior, communication and responsiveness matter. Empowering staff to engage respectfully and informally with neighbors can have a big impact. However, it’s important to recognize that dealing with emotions and sensitive issues requires specific skills. Not every employee is equipped to handle difficult conversations, and that’s OK. Some neighbors might respond better to operations staff who understand the technical aspects of the landfill, while others just need an empathetic ear.

This thoughtful matching helps foster interactions that are productive and respectful, and it helps build stronger, more resilient relationships.

4. Build a culture of responsibility.

The concept of “social license to operate” originates from the mining sector and refers to the ongoing acceptance, approval and trust granted by the local community. While it’s not a formal approval, losing social license to operate can lead to resistance and operations disruptions. Operators that take social license to operate seriously accept the responsibility of being a good corporate citizen and don’t take their ability to operate for granted.

Similar to a culture of safety, a culture of social license to operate must be embedded through the values, attitudes and beliefs of everyone at the organization. Operators engage their communities in good faith and work to earn their trust. Once trust is earned, it also must be maintained. This is done through continuous, transparent engagement and genuine respect for the community’s interests and concerns. If trust is lost, it can take doubly long to rebuild. When mistakes happen or incidents occur, it’s important to be accountable for your actions and put resources into rebuilding trust.

5. Make meaningful contributions.

Contributing to charitable community causes builds social capital. The most successful community contribution campaigns are community-driven. This means that decisions should be made at the local site level rather than at the corporate level, and, as much as possible, community members should decide where to allocate funds.

An example of this is a defined community benefits program, with a percentage of profits being directed to the fund. These funds can be managed as a trust where community members, as trustees, decide how those funds should be spent. Whether it’s environmental initiatives, scholarships, libraries, schools or other charitable endeavors, this approach empowers community members to decide where to direct funds based on what’s important to the community.

While community contributions build social capital, they do not replace other community relations strategies. When controversies and issues arise, sound community relations and community investment are long-term actions that solidify the operator as being a good neighbor and community member.

Success lies in continuous improvement

Community relations for landfill operators is a continuous, evolving process rooted in empathy, transparency and genuine connection. By investing in managing impacts, building personal relationships, empowering staff and promoting a culture of responsibility, skepticism can be transformed into support.

The most successful operators understand that community trust is earned through consistent actions, not just words. They show up, listen, respond and adapt. And in doing so, these operators create a foundation of mutual respect that benefits both the landfill and the community it serves.

The author is the strategic communications and engagement lead at GHD. She is based out of Toronto for GHD, a global civil engineering firm headquartered in Sydney.