Taking Your Green Act to Work! Top Tips and Ideas to Reduce Your Office Waste
Much has been said about green living at home, but what about the workplace? Keeping the environmental impact at a minimum isn't just about thinking green at home. An eco-minded working place promotes you as a green business.
However, while more than eighty per cent office waste is recyclable, many businesses are still lagging behind in contributing to a sustainable environment, mainly due to lack of enough ideas on waste reduction.
Here are a few tips to help you implement office waste reduction and put your business on a path of becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Paper waste reduction
Reducing paper use can help shrink your office footprint. Perhaps one of the best ideas for reducing paper use and wastage is going digital in your office. Since it's a digital era, stepping back from everyday paper usage should be an easy step.
Simply make policies to use digital tools that serve the same function as paper such as Google spreadsheets and other online tools. If your office must use paper for some purposes, encourage your co-workers to use black and white ink and also to use both sides of the paper.
Since paper constitutes the largest portion of office waste, encourage a think before you print environment by distributing memos via email and through weekly reminders especially during meetings.
Recycling and compost bins everywhere
Providing the right bins in your working environment can make for easy recycling. It's common to find a few bins for mixed general waste rather than designated bins in most offices which greatly limits recycling capabilities.
Investing in different types of bins for designated use can go a long way in implementing the new recycling policies as well as maintaining a strong recycling system. Sourcing out separate bins, for recycling waste streams and food waste, is the key to making sure waste streams do not become contaminated, and recycling can be done with ease.
Make sure your offices utilise sperate bins for food waste and generic bins for recycling waste.
Reuse, Recycle, Reuse
Encouraging the habit of reusing helps eliminate office waste. Nearly every office supply can be used to serve a different purpose. Don't throw away old paper documents which you can reuse as packaging material by shredding them.
Also, consider fixing your office furniture rather than throwing away when broken. If everything in your office has seen better days, it's time for an office clean up. Avoid piles of rubbish and waste by hiring a skip bin. Learn more about skip bins from a local company, such as A West Bin.