What this is
What is a scrap and waste record?
What is a scrap and waste record?
A scrap and waste record documents material that is scrapped or wasted during production: how much, at which process step, for what reason, whether it was avoidable, and what disposition followed. It is completed per occurrence or per run, close to the event, rather than compiled retrospectively from a total figure.
What is the difference between scrap and rework?
Scrap is material that has left the possibility of recovery: destroyed, downgraded beyond use, or discarded. Rework is material that failed to meet specification but can be brought back into it through a defined process. The Disposition field distinguishes them, and a Rework Considered field exists specifically because scrap is frequently the default answer when rework was never actually evaluated.
Why record waste by occurrence instead of a month-end total?
A total tells you the size of the problem after it is too late to act on the specific cause. Recording process step, waste category and cause at the time of each occurrence is what lets a trend be traced back to a particular machine, shift or method, which is the only version of the number that can actually be attacked.
Scope
When is a scrap and waste record required?
This record is the after-the-fact accounting of material lost during production, distinct from the checks that run before or during a changeover. Using it to record something that belongs to a neighbouring template loses the detail that record is built to hold.
Use this template when
- Material is scrapped, downgraded, destroyed or otherwise lost at any point in a production run
- A production order closes with residual material that needs to be reconciled against what was issued
- A batch is downgraded or reworked and the reject quantity needs recording against a cause and a step
- A loss recurs on the same line, step or cause, and the pattern needs a record trail to be visible
- A workspace register is being set up, or a line or process step is being added to the waste categorisation
Do not use it for
- Line Clearance Record (OPS-007), which verifies the previous product is fully removed before a changeover begins, not what was lost once it did
- Production Order Record (OPS-008), which reconciles total yield against materials issued for the whole run, rather than logging each individual loss
- Changeover Record (OPS-009), which times and documents the changeover itself, from last good piece to first good piece
- Environmental Waste Record (ENV-009), which carries the duty-of-care documentation, carrier licence and consignment note once material actually leaves site
- Anything outside KnowOps, which belongs in the workspace that owns that process
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 14001 cl.8.1 requirements does this satisfy?
ISO 14001 does not prescribe a scrap and waste form. It requires waste to be identified as a significant environmental aspect, controlled operationally, and monitored, and this record is the routine evidence an auditor expects to see behind those requirements at the level of an individual occurrence.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 14001 cl.6.1.2 | Environmental aspects, including waste generated by an activity, identified and evaluated for significance | Header |
| ISO 14001 cl.8.1 | Operational controls established for processes that generate waste, applied consistently and maintained | Cause |
| ISO 14001 cl.6.1.1 | Actions to address risks determined, relevant to segregation and rework decisions that prevent an avoidable loss becoming a disposal | Handling |
| ISO 14001 cl.8.1 | Control of externally provided processes, such as waste contractors, needed to prevent adverse environmental impact from disposal | Handling |
| ISO 14001 cl.9.1.1 | Monitoring and measurement of the key characteristics of operations with significant environmental impact, including waste quantity and trend | Outcome |
| ISO 14001 cl.10.2 | Nonconformity and corrective action applied where a recurring cause or an above-threshold loss is identified | Outcome |
| ISO 14001 cl.7.5.3 | Documented information controlled and retained as evidence, including the sign-off that closes the record | Outcome |
What it does not cover
- Environmental Waste Record, which carries the duty-of-care documentation, waste carrier licence and consignment note required once material actually leaves the site.
- Rework Instruction, which specifies how downgraded or reworked material may be reprocessed and under what controls, rather than simply flagging that rework was considered.
- Root Cause Analysis, which investigates why a loss recurred or exceeded threshold, rather than recording that it happened.
- Production Order Record, which reconciles total yield against materials issued for the whole run, and is where an unexplained gap between the two is caught.
- The corrective action itself, which belongs in the CAPA record once raised, not in the fields of this one.
Global
Scrap and Waste Record requirements by country
ISO 14001 is a voluntary, certifiable international standard, not a waste law. The statutory duties that sit underneath a scrap and waste record, around classification, handling and disposal, are set nationally and vary considerably in how prescriptive they are.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); state solid and hazardous waste regulations
Federal law governs hazardous waste from generation to disposal (cradle to grave); most non-hazardous waste is regulated at state level.
Whether a given scrap stream is hazardous determines a materially different set of recordkeeping duties, which the Disposition and Waste Category fields need to distinguish correctly.
Environmental Protection Act 1990 s.34 (Duty of Care); Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016
A statutory duty of care applies to anyone who produces, holds or disposes of waste, requiring it to be handled safely and passed only to an authorised person.
The Environmental Waste Record this template links to is where duty-of-care compliance is actually evidenced; this record is upstream of that duty, not a substitute for it.
Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC
Establishes the waste hierarchy, prevention through disposal, and requires member states to apply it in national law.
Rework Considered and Avoidable are the fields closest to the hierarchy's prevention and preparing-for-reuse priorities, ranked above disposal.
Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999; provincial waste regulations
Federal law addresses toxic substances and certain waste movements; day-to-day waste classification and disposal sit with provincial regulators.
Provincial variation means the correct disposal route for the same material can differ by site, which is exactly what the Disposal Route Correct field is checking.
State and territory environment protection legislation (for example the Protection of the Environment Operations Act, NSW)
Waste regulation is set at state level, with licensing requirements for waste generation, transport and disposal.
A site operating across states needs the waste category and disposal route validated against the specific state's rules, not a single national standard.
ISO 14001
A certifiable management system standard requiring waste to be identified as an aspect and controlled, without prescribing a specific recording method.
Certification auditors will ask to see that waste is monitored with enough granularity to demonstrate control, which a month-end total alone does not provide.
How to complete it
How to complete a scrap and waste record, step by step
The template prompts for what was lost, where and why. It does not resolve the judgement calls that decide whether the categorisation behind that number is honest.
Waste category and process step need to be recorded against the actual loss, while the cause is still visible, not reconstructed at the end of shift from a rough sense of what usually happens on that line. A record filled in from memory tends to default to the same category every time, which flattens a trend that should show variation.
Avoidable is answered under pressure by the person closest to the loss, and the temptation is to mark it No to close the record quickly. Cross-checking the avoidable answer against the cause fields, equipment, material, method, technique, design, catches the case where a clearly identified cause was still marked unavoidable.
An estimated quantity is sometimes unavoidable, but it should be the exception rather than the default. A record where estimated entries are common and unflagged makes the eventual waste percentage a number nobody can defend, because nobody can say how far off any individual entry might be.
Above Threshold For Investigation and Recurring Cause are the two fields that should route a loss to an RCA, not the value of the loss on its own. A small loss that recurs weekly on the same step is usually a bigger operational problem than a single large loss with an identified, one-off cause.
What auditors find
Most common scrap and waste record findings
Scrap and waste findings rarely concern whether a loss was recorded. They concern whether the categorisation behind the record can be trusted to add up to something useful.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity wasted recorded as an estimate with no reconciliation against materials issued to the order. | ISO 14001 cl.9.1.1 | Require weighing or counting wherever practical, and flag estimated entries for reconciliation against the production order. |
| Waste category and process step left generic or unrecorded, so losses cannot be aggregated by cause. | ISO 14001 cl.6.1.2 | Make waste category and process step mandatory fields captured at the time of the loss, not at end of shift. |
| Avoidable marked No for a loss with an identified equipment, method or technique cause. | Standard-specific | Cross-check the avoidable answer against the cause fields; an identified cause is rarely fully unavoidable. |
| Recurring cause marked Yes with no root cause analysis reference attached. | ISO 14001 cl.10.2 | Force an RCA reference whenever recurring cause is Yes, regardless of the value of the individual loss. |
| Disposition recorded as Scrap or Destroy with no environmental waste record raised. | ISO 14001 cl.8.1 | Link the environmental waste record automatically whenever disposition is Scrap or Destroy. |
| Segregation not confirmed, and material was later found mixed with general waste at disposal. | ISO 14001 cl.6.1.1 | Verify segregation at the point of disposal as well as at the point the material was scrapped. |
| Rework considered marked No with no reason given, for material later found to be reworkable. | Standard-specific | Require a stated reason whenever rework is not considered, reviewed by someone other than the line lead. |
| Estimated value left blank on quantities large enough to be material to the waste percentage. | ISO 14001 cl.9.1.1 | Set a quantity threshold above which estimated value becomes a mandatory field. |
| Waste percent trending upward with no individual record showing a specific cause behind the movement. | ISO 14001 cl.9.1.1 | Audit waste category and process step completion rates before treating the trend line as informative. |
| Second signature obtained from the production manager without confirming disposition or value. | ISO 14001 cl.7.5.3 | Require the second signer to confirm disposition and value explicitly, not simply countersign the record. |
Case in point
Case in point: the six percent nobody could locate
A dairy filling line ran at just over six percent product loss for four consecutive months, against a five percent target, with the monthly waste report showing only a single total figure pulled from the site's overall material reconciliation. Management asked the line to try harder, and the number did not move.
When the site began requiring scrap and waste records per occurrence instead of a monthly roll-up, a pattern appeared within three weeks: a specific valve on one filler consistently overfilled on the first ten to fifteen units after any changeover, and operators had been recording each of these as 'startup loss, unavoidable' out of habit, because that was the category that had always been used for anything happening in the first few minutes of a run.
The loss was not unavoidable, and it was not really a startup issue; it was a valve calibration drifting after every changeover and never being reset until the next scheduled maintenance. Once the process step and cause were captured per occurrence rather than folded into a monthly total, the recurring cause flag surfaced the pattern in under a month, and a valve recalibration step added to the changeover procedure took the line to just under three percent.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
4 sections
- Reference
- OPS-011
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- SCR-2026-000
- Scoring
- Waste percent
- Direction
- High is bad
- Singleton
- Yes
- Basis
- ISO 14001 cl.8.1
- Links
- Links Production Order and Waste Record
- Tags
- Production, Waste, Yield
- Sections
- 4
- Fields
- 44
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 5
Header
18 fieldsRecord ID*
Auto sequence. Format SCR-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Area
The area within the site.
Exact Location
Drop a pin for anything hard to find.
Line*
Production Order
Material Or Product
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Quantity Wasted*
Unit Of Measure
Estimated Value
Process Step*
Where in the process the waste was generated.
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Waste Category*
Start up, changeover, breakdown, quality reject, spillage, or expiry.
- Start upnot scored
- Changeovernot scored
- Breakdownnot scored
- Quality rejectnot scored
- Spillagenot scored
- Expirynot scored
Avoidable*
- No3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- Yes0 pts
A Month End Total Cannot Be Attacked
Waste recorded once a month as a percentage tells you it was five percent. Recorded by step and reason as it happens, it tells you which machine and which hour.
Cause
6 fieldsEquipment Related*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Material Related*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Method Or Setting Related*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Operator Technique Related*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Design Or Specification Related*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Recurring Cause*
- No3 pts
- Yes0 pts
Handling
6 fieldsSegregated Correctly*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Weighed Or Counted Rather Than Estimated*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Rework Considered Before Scrapping*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Disposal Route Correct*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Recorded Against The Order*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Environmental Waste Record Raised Where Needed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Outcome
14 fieldsDisposition*
- Release3 pts
- Release under concession1 pt
- Rework1 pt
- Downgrade1 pt
- Concession1 pt
- Return to supplier1 pt
- Scrap0 pts
- Destroy0 pts
Waste Record ID
Links to ENV-009 Record ID
Rework Instruction ID
Links to QUA-111 Instruction ID
Above Threshold For Investigation*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
RCA ID
Links to FDN-013 RCA ID
Feeds Waste Trend*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Line Lead*
Signature*
Production Manager*
Second Signature*
OPS-011 · record IDs look like SCR-2026-000 · Links Production Order and Waste Record
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The record itself is a per-occurrence entry. What determines whether it becomes a usable trend is whether the categorisation is honest at the time it is made, and whether a recurring or above-threshold loss actually reaches an investigation.
Holds the scrap and waste register against the production schedule, and rolls occurrence-level records into a waste trend broken down by step and cause.
Links the environmental waste record automatically whenever disposition is Scrap or Destroy, so the duty-of-care documentation is never left to be raised separately.
Tracks rework and downgrade dispositions through to the rework instruction, so a decision to reprocess material is not left unlinked to how it was actually reworked.
Flags a loss crossing the recurrence or investigation threshold and raises the root cause analysis reference before the pattern is buried in the next month's total.
This template lives in KnowOps — frontline execution. Shift handover, production control, daily management, worker lifecycle and improvement.
Meet KnowOps→Glossary
Scrap and Waste Record definitions and key terms
- Scrap
- Material that has left the possibility of recovery: destroyed, downgraded beyond further use, or discarded.
- Waste
- Material lost from the process that is not incorporated into a saleable product, whether or not it later has value as a by-product.
- Disposition
- The decision made about lost or nonconforming material: release, release under concession, rework, downgrade, return to supplier, scrap or destroy.
- Duty of care
- The statutory obligation, in several jurisdictions, on anyone who produces, holds or disposes of waste to handle it safely and pass it only to an authorised recipient.
- Reconciliation
- Confirming that the quantity recorded as wasted, together with the quantity in finished product, matches what was issued to the run.
- Avoidable loss
- A loss whose cause could realistically have been controlled, distinguished from a loss inherent to the process as currently designed.
- Recurring cause
- A cause of loss that has appeared before, which changes the priority of the finding from an isolated event to a pattern needing investigation.
- Root cause analysis (RCA)
- A structured investigation into why a loss occurred or recurred, undertaken when a loss crosses a value or recurrence threshold.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about scrap and waste record
What's the difference between scrap and rework?+
Scrap has left the possibility of recovery; rework has failed to meet specification but can be brought back into it through a defined process. The Rework Considered field exists because scrap is often the default answer when rework was never actually evaluated, particularly under time pressure to clear a line.
Should every discarded item get its own record, or can small losses be batched?+
Per occurrence or per run, as the template's completion cadence states. Batching small losses into a single end-of-shift entry is workable if the category and process step are still genuinely representative of that batch; batching losses from different steps or causes into one entry defeats the purpose of the record.
How is waste percent calculated?+
As quantity wasted against quantity issued or produced for the same period or run, with high treated as bad, the reverse of most scoring in this library. The figure is only as trustworthy as the category and cause data behind each contributing record, which is why the completion percentage on incomplete forms matters as much as the score itself.
What counts as avoidable?+
A loss whose cause could realistically have been controlled with the equipment, method, material or training available at the time. It is a judgement call, and it should be checked against the cause fields rather than accepted at face value, because there is a natural pressure to answer No regardless of what actually happened.
When does a loss need an environmental waste record as well as this one?+
Whenever the disposition is Scrap or Destroy and the material actually leaves the site as waste. This record captures the production-side detail, quantity, cause, step; the environmental waste record carries the duty-of-care documentation the material's departure from site requires.
Why record per occurrence instead of a month-end total?+
Because a total describes the size of the problem after the point where anyone could act on the specific cause. Recorded per occurrence, with process step and category attached, the same total becomes traceable back to a machine, a shift or a method, which is the only version of the number that can actually be investigated.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Production Control
Work Order
The main record for a planned maintenance job, covering what, where, who and when
Line Clearance Record
Confirms a line is clear of the previous product, its packaging and its paperwork before the next one starts
Production Order Record
Records the execution of a production order, covering quantities, materials consumed, yield and where it went
Changeover Record
Times and records a changeover from last good piece to first good piece, with what was done in between
Downtime Log
Records every stop, how long it lasted and what caused it, by reason code
Daily Production Report
Summarises the day across lines: output, attainment, losses, quality and the issues carried forward
More in Production Control
Line Clearance Record
Confirms a line is clear of the previous product, its packaging and its paperwork before the next one starts
Production Order Record
Records the execution of a production order, covering quantities, materials consumed, yield and where it went
Changeover Record
Times and records a changeover from last good piece to first good piece, with what was done in between
Downtime Log
Records every stop, how long it lasted and what caused it, by reason code
Daily Production Report
Summarises the day across lines: output, attainment, losses, quality and the issues carried forward
Rate and OEE Review
Reviews availability, performance and quality for a line over a period and identifies the dominant loss
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- ISO 14001:2015, clauses 6.1.2, 7.5.3, 8.1, 9.1.1 and 10.2
- Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC on waste and repealing certain directives (EU)
- Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34, Duty of Care (UK)
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (US)
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.