Where will you recycle?

At Work

Establishing an office recycling initiative won’t just reduce your carbon footprint, but it could also save your business money.

The first step to setting up an effective recycling programme is to survey your workplace, and figure out exactly what’s going into the bins. Then, you can figure out which products are recyclable and which ones you want to include in your workplace recycling initiative. The easiest way to do this is by reaching out to whoever collects your recycling, whether it’s your municipal waste management program or your building management, and asking them exactly what they recycle and what they do not.

It generally makes sense to start small. Paper, plastic, glass and cans are a good place to start. A few months after you launch your program, as employee participation and awareness increases, you can move onto other, larger recyclable objects, such as ink cartridges, computers, and other electronics. Whatever you decide to recycle, you’ll need to appoint a co-ordinator to oversee and organise the programme. This person should ideally be someone who is enthusiastic about sustainability and willing to help see the entire recycling initiative through.

Recycling at the office is not only a form of Corporate Social Investment but you can reap the rewards with green credentials, like carbon credits and enterprise development.

Encouraging Participation

Even if you’ve found the perfect programme co-ordinator, a successful recycling initiative needs to come from the top down in order to motivate employees to participate. People tend to respond more strongly when the CEO encourages and motivates the team. Be strategic about your placement of recycling bins. They need to go in places where the most waste is generated, like copy rooms, near printers, board rooms, and in staff cafeterias. They also need to be easily identifiable, with clear signage indicating that they are for recyclable materials only. (Make sure to specify which material goes into which bin.) Besides handy bins, another way to encourage employees to participate is through consistent communication. Make sure every worker in the office is aware of the programme and its goals. Track progress in public by counting up recycled materials, and letting everyone know what they’ve helped to accomplish.

Training Staff

It’s essential to reach out to your building management or your landlord to notify them of your recycling initiative, so they can make sure their cleaning staff are on the same page. You need an on-going education programme that allows your employees know the details of your program, and what they can and cannot recycle.

Arranging for Collection

One of the most important parts of the process is deciding how to collect and dispose of the recyclables.

There are many different types of paper products, like printer paper, magazines, cardboard, and construction paper.

• You can separate each specific type, which can make your recyclables more valuable if you disposing of them at a drop-off center and could increase employee awareness about the specifics of recycling.
• You could also collect all paper products in one bin, and plastics in another, in a method called comingled collection. This is less work, but the materials could be contaminated easily when they are mingled together.
• Many businesses are located in municipalities with recycling services, or are located in office complexes where the management is responsible for waste disposal. Contact whoever takes care of your waste to arrange for proper disposal and pickup of whatever materials you recycle.
• You may have to hire an outside service. This will depend on the size of your company, as many commercial recyclers require a particular volume of waste that could be more than your company generates. Consider partnering with other companies, hiring smaller companies, or arranging to drop off recycling at collection points. Another viable option is donating to charities. Many local organisations will offer to come and pick up recycled materials, particularly electronics. It’s another way to encourage employees by creating a sense of good will.

Taking More Steps

Recycling programs are often only a smaller part of a broader workplace program to encourage sustainable business practices. If you’re looking to save on costs, combining your recycling programe with an effort to reduce office waste and reuse existing products can be a smart business strategy. When you’re auditing what goes into the waste bins, you might realise that you’re wasting a lot of paper. Try to find tasks that could be paperless, or products that could be reused.

Recycling, reducing, and reusing do not have to stop in the workplace, but can be done at home too.