Helpful tips for better office recycling

How can you recycle more in the office?

How sustainable is your office? We’ve been thinking about how implementing simple recycling initiatives can help your office become greener.

Waste management education

Educating everyone in the office is a great place to start. Appoint a recycling champion to spread their knowledge to the team and maintain recycling in the workplace. Make it clear exactly what can and can’t be recycled. The last thing you want is to provide recycling bins that get contaminated with unrecyclable products. For example, some lids cannot be recycled, and coffee cups have to be recycled separately to paper waste.

Provide recycling bins

The easiest way to help everyone recycle more is to make it simple. Make recycling signage clear and concise to avoid confusion and contamination. Use colour coded recycle bins, add visuals and reminders in communal areas.

You could also remove waste bins under desks to encourage staff to walk to take away their waste. If your floor area is large, then add a few stations to make it easier for everyone.

Remember to request that confidential papers are shredded rather than recycled. If you employ an external company to take away your shredded waste, they will recycle this as standard.

Try an organic waste bin. If you have some green space outside, introduce a compost bin and use the waste to enhance your green areas. Sending organic waste to landfill creates harmful methane, and most of your fruit and veg waste, coffee grinds, eggshells and paper towels can be composted.

Reduce paper use

Ask everyone in the office to think before they print out. You could implement a paper policy asking everyone to printing on both sides if you do need to print.

Reduce instead of recycle

With the UK struggling to cope with the amount of plastic waste produced, why not do your best to reduce the amount you use in the first place? Encourage everyone to do their part by promoting waste-free lunches. Reduce plastic sandwich cartons and single use plastic bottles. You could provide a water filter to reduce plastic bottles and a coffee machine to avoid using takeaway coffee cups.

Buy in bulk and save

Unlike some suppliers, our products may be purchased in bulk quantities to save you money. Buying in larger quantities also helps reduce unnecessary plastic. Cleaning products can often be bought it large 5 litre containers that can be decanted and often work out cheaper than buying smaller, individual bottles.

Use recyclable products

A growing range of office products are now eco-friendly. Try our range of eco coffee pods in your machines that can be recycled. For your printer cartridges, you could set up a recycling scheme. Many cartridges can be donated to charities to raise money. We stock a wide range of pens, recycled paper, notebooks and more within our eco-friendly office products range.

Set up a re-use station

Why not set up a stationery re-use station for everyone in the office to use. Ask all staff to have a clear-out of their drawers and cupboards to see if there are any items that could be used by other people. Items such as ring binders, folders, pens, pencils or notebooks could be re-used before ordering more stock.

Don’t forget about e-waste

Dealing with the volumes of e-waste produced each year is a huge issue across the globe. Obsolete or broken electronic items may be piling up in your cupboards. Computer monitors, old mobile phones, or broken printers can all be sent away for recycling. These items contain precious metals such as copper, gold and lithium that can be stripped and melted down to use again. Don’t forget to set up a recycling point for batteries and light bulbs that can also be easily recycled.

Ask vendors to package deliveries responsibly

Waste from deliveries to your business can really mount up. Why not request that any deliveries you receive are within recyclable packaging such as cardboard or biodegradable loosefill to reduce plastic waste?

Reporting your efforts

All teams need feedback to show how their efforts are making a difference. Ask your recycling champion to periodically communicate recycling rates to show how they are making a difference. Use visuals such as graphs to show how much waste has been recycled each month and the benefits it has brought to the company or the carbon it has saved.

And for anything that cannot be recycled…

Have a policy for anything that cannot be recovered. Some items containing mixed materials cannot be recycled. Try and keep these items to a minimum. Don’t forget to promote your green efforts on social media too! We stock a growing range of eco-products – find these by searching ‘eco’ on our website.