Going green isn’t just a fad or trend — it’s a highly efficient practice that helps to minimize unnecessary household and business wastage. Implementing an office recycling program can do wonders to better protect the environment, particularly as offices consume a lot of materials including paper, printer ink, and light bulbs. Here are some helpful tips to get you implement such a program in your office environment.
Reach Out to Waste Management Parties
Whether your office’s waste is managed by a municipal collection program or building management, take the time to speak with them and learn what can be recycled and what can’t. Statistics indicate that up to 90% of office waste can in fact be recycled, so your efforts will surely make a major impact. By learning what can be recycled, you can better organize this new recycling program and plan it out more accordingly.
Speak to Employees
By talking to employees and learning what they waste and how they dispose of it, you’ll have a better idea of how inefficient or needlessly wasteful your office’s current waste management plan is. By combining this data with what you learned from those who handle waste management for your location, you are now ready to implement a successful office recycling program. Additionally, when visiting employees at their stations, you can gain a better understanding of where they frequent or how close they will be to recycling bins.
Appoint a Program Coordinator
By enlisting the help of someone highly knowledgeable and/or passionate about sustainability and environmental protection, your program will hit the ground running and likely be more successful. A coordinator will keep a close eye on the inner workings of the program throughout its inception process, ensuring that it is being utilized properly and efficiently drawing in recyclable materials from the office. While you may be too busy at times to adequately inspect the efficiency of the program, your coordinator will be specifically there to do so, acting as a second set of eyes and informing you of any adjustments that need to be made (such as additional bins, stricter enforcement, etc).
Incentivize Eco-Friendliness
Once your program is in full swing, it’s important to keep employees motivated and passionate about accurately diverting waste away from landfills. Hold fun contests with rewards for those who recycle the most or come up with ways to bolster the program’s effectiveness, or throw a pizza party if the office meets a goal of a specific percentage of sufficiently recycled waste. By respecting employees or showing your gratitude for their dedication to the program, they’ll feel more inclined to keep up the good work.
If going paperless or making major expensive changes isn’t financially feasible, implementing a recycling program in your office can make a huge impact on how your workplace’s waste is diverted and treated. The more you and your employees work together to make it successful, the greater of a difference it will make on your office’s impact on the environment.
