Office Waste Management

Office Waste Management

Haven’t given serious consideration to ‘going green’ at your office? Well you should. Office waste management is imperative to the well-being of staff, the environment and in most cases your own profits.

Yes, recycling is a conscious decision that must take finance and set-up into account. These are factors that concern all small businesses.

However, by pacing yourselves, the long term gain is apparent. Why not start by considering something as little as your use of paper.

Paper Recycling

First, consider what it is that your employees do with print outs and scrawled notes on stray bits of paper. It’s not hard to guess when there’s a paper bin close at hand.

With so many office spaces treating waste disposal in such a fashion, it’s easy to see how there has been paper waste recorded as high as 8 million tonnes* in recent times.

That’s a disturbing amount. Even more so when you consider how that this can be occupying your own bin space, costing you additional expenses.

Reduce the number of trash pick ups in turn diminishes the amounts you have to fork out on waste collection.

Investing in and using recycled stock also has its benefits. Not only is this type of paper cheaper to purchase, but much of this amount being re purposed accounts for up to 70% of the fibre used to manufacture paper and board in the UK.*

You’ll be cutting costs and doing your bit to save the planet at the same time!

Sceptics will still tell you that we still use up a lot of energy to manufacture recycled paper. But there are reports to substantiate that energy savings produced from recycled paper industry can be as high as 70%, based on factors.

If this has peaked your interest then here are a few other handy hints to help you further economise paper use around your office space.

Tips On How You Can Help

Tip 1: Print Both Sides

  • So you typed up that company memo or client contract.  the information contained within can run much longer than a single page.
  • Why print multiple pages on a single side, when you could half your paper usage and energy cost, printing double sided.
  • A small but noticeable change.

Tip 2: Go Digital

  • Why write a  note when you can go digital – send an email instead!
  • This may seem the most obvious thing in the world, especially considering the modern age we live in. But passing around notes is so counter-productive.
  • On a more apparent scale, corresponding with clients through mail is far more energy efficient than sending letters. Snail mail is also likely to be discarded, so why waste the paper in the first place?
  • Also consider the logistics of this when sending mail shots and full colour flyer and press material. Web is the way to go.

Tip 3: Positive Reinforcement

  • Reinforce good habits in your employees by flagging conveniently placed recycling bins around the office.
  • This could be as simple as a strategically placed personal bin, under an employee’s desk.
  • Or larger types situated near communal areas, such as tea rooms, printers etc.
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