7 Office Recycling Tips That Will Obliterate Your Waste Cost

office-recycling-tips

When most organisation’s think about going green, the first thing that comes to mind is recycling.

Why?

Because waste is highly visible and is relatively easy to deal with.

The thing is most organisations do a pretty shoddy job with their office recycling initiatives. This is such a shame and wasted opportunity.

Done correctly, a comprehensive office recycling initiate can help an organisation send zero to landfill.

This article provides 7 top tips for reducing your waste and implementing an effective recycling system that will obliterate your waste and put you on the path to sending nothing to landfill.

How Much Waste Does An Office Produce?

A typical office produces huge volumes of waste.

For example, an office of 100 people produces on average 20 bags of waste a week. This fills one 1,100L waste bin a week

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This is equivalent to filling fifty 1,100L waste bins in a year!! The crazy thing is that over 90% of office waste can be recycled.

Top Tips To Reducing Your Business Waste

1. Focus On Paper Consumption

Most office waste consists of paper. The highest impact action that you can take to reduce your waste is to reduce paper consumption.

The two main actions you can take to reduce paper are to setup all printers on double-side (i.e. duplex printing). This simple action could halve paper consumption.

The second step is more technical and requires capital investment to setup, but is worth exploring if you employ more than 50 staff. It is called ‘pull printing’ or ‘FollowMe printing’ and essentially relies on a user activating a print job at the printer.

The reason it works so well is that over 30% of print jobs sent to a printer are never collected (i.e. they become waste!). Pull printing can reduce printing volumes by at least 30%.

If this sounds like an option to you then speak to your printer supplier who will no doubt be able to provide you with more details.

2. Reduce Or Reuse

Paper reduction strategies offer a great opportunity to reduce waste but there are also other areas where you can reduce or reuse resources.

Take time to look at other articles in your waste stream (stationery, toners, cardboard, furniture, IT equipment etc.) and explore ways to reduce consumption or reuse materials.

3. Gradually Expand Recycling System

Once you have exhausted your options for reduction and reuse it is then time to explore recycling options.

The best recycling systems start small and build on sound foundations over time to become exemplary. As the saying goes – Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Always start with paper and card recycling as it is usually the most visible and highest volume waste product in the office.

Over time try to expand the recycling system to other waste materials – glass, plastics, fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, toners, CDs, food waste, furniture, IT equipment etc.).

4. Invest In Good Bins And Labelling

We all know that offices use a lot of recyclable materials but not all offices have designated places to recycle. As you introduce a new recycling option to the office make sure that the option is well communicated to staff and that the recycling facility is highly visible.

A great option is available from Schaefer Systems International who provide a large number of different types of bins and containers to put your recyclable materials in for your office.

Either way we recommend sourcing bins that are affordable, look good and are highly visible.

Separate waste bins for each recycling option is key as it makes sure that waste streams do not become contaminated and can be recycled with ease.

Use colour coded bins which are prominently displayed in the office.

It is useful to include a picture of what can be disposed in the bin and a short, punchy label which provides practical guidelines for employees

5. Remove Personal Bins

Once you have a strong recycling system in place it is imperative that you remove as many general waste units – in particular personal bins under each staff member’s desk.

The key is to have a small number of centrally located general waste bins and a much higher ratio of recycling bins available around the office.

Initially, this may result in some backlash from employees but as long as the benefits of the new recycling system are communicated (i.e. waste reduction potential and cost savings) along with an easy and accessible system, then you should be able to overcome all obstacles.

6. Run A Recycling Awareness Day

If you find that adoption rates of the new recycling system are low then it is important that employees are engaged early.

An awareness day which provides engaging graphics and appeals to employee’s understanding, beliefs and habits around recycling and environmental issues is key (read Getting employee engagement right to find out how to do this).

Focus on the financial and environmental costs associated with waste production and highlight the potential savings if everyone was on board.

7. Move To A Zero-To-Landfill System

Even with a comprehensive recycling system, you will still have residual general waste which gets sent to landfill every week.

To eliminate this waste you could look at the option of sending it to be incinerated. There are a number of specialist waste providers who offer this service.

Research shows that the impacts from incineration are outweighed by the benefits in terms of electricity production and reduced landfill impacts.

A zero-to-landfill office provides a very powerful and compelling environmental commitment which the business can use to engage customers (win/retain business) and inspire staff (attain and retain talent).

We hope this article provides you with the tools and motivation to explore recycling in your office.

About the Author Staff Writer

Our writers come from all over the world, but one thing unites them - their passion for sustainability.

Leave a Comment:

14 comments
Kate Kenny says November 29, 2014

Office waste should be recycled as much as possible. Just dumping it in some landfill is complete injustice to the environment. It’s good to see that several companies have started going down the recycling route. Recycling of any types of waste is the best idea to contribute your bit to the environment conservation. Waste managers like Everything Rubbish have been working hard to innovate recycling technologies.

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Lisa says May 13, 2015

These are awesome tips for anyone trying to get into recycling. I definitely agree with tip number 4, about the importance of investing in good bins. My husband and I used to have a small bag in our mudroom for recycling and we never used it. Finally, we decided to get a big trash can and use it specifically for recycling…that’s made all the difference! Recycling really is quite easy, and it’s a great way to take care of our planet.

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Ruby Chalmers says March 11, 2016

Great tips! My sister and her colleagues are trying recently to reduce the waste they are producing at their office. Your tips and advises will be of a great help for them, so I’m surely recommending this post. Thanks for the nice information!

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Vincent says July 10, 2016

Nice article but the incineration idea of reducing wastes is not correct. Standing to basic Lavoisier’s concept, burning stuff produces other wastes such as dioxins. Zero waste is not the goal but the path.

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Deedee Lewis says December 12, 2016

One of the reasons I don’t recycle in an office setting is due to lack of recycling bins. I find that when these waste containers are available they are used for their purpose. The idea of using color-coded bins would work due to the fact that they would be easier to spot causing less confusion as to where things should go.

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David says December 17, 2016

Each cubicle we had in our office has recycling bins. This is one of the best way to reuse garbage to sort them out or waste sorting. Glad i found your blog to help us add more concern about garbage.

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Dave Anderson says April 5, 2017

I agree that reusing your paper more often can dramatically reduce the amount of waste that a company can make. Another thing that would be beneficial would be to give employees reusable bottle and cups that they can refill throughout the day to cut down on plastic. If you do that you would cut down on even more waste. Finally, companies should recycle all of the paper and plastic that they use as a company rather than trash it.

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Greg Holly says May 24, 2017

Nice to read. So useful and informative tips about recycling. Many thanks for sharing them all.

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rohit aggarwal says February 1, 2019

thanks for the information

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Julian Smith says March 18, 2019

Recycling is one of the important techniques in reducing waste. As a matter of fact, recycling is the best methods for waste management.
Various waste management company have introduced effective solutions for waste recycling, disposal, reuse, and recycle. But nothing beats the inhouse management of waste.

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easton says March 18, 2019

I like the tip that you gave to use a labeling system with your recycling. My wife and I want to recycle her old car battery, and it would be important for us to know that we are doing so correctly. If we decide to recycle it, I will be sure to use a labeled container.

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Joanne says May 9, 2019

Investing in labelled recycling bins has been the best way to encourage my employees to recycle. If people are confused as to what they can and cannot put in certain bins they tend to just put everything into a black landfill bin.

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    SBToolkit says May 9, 2019

    You are correct, great point Joanne!

    Reply
business recycling says July 13, 2021

If just 10% people in every country practice recycling that would be a big impact already to save materials and our planet.

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