Recycling: What’s Good for the Home is Good for the Office
Thanks to popular media coverage and the virtually free flowing siphon of information that is the World Wide Web, the issues of environmental awareness are fairly commonplace to most Americans. The catch phrase, “reduce, reuse, recycle,” is no longer a hippie sounding mantra, but a sensible expression used freely in households, schools, retail stores, and restaurants. Many Americans are fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood that supports a curbside recycling program, thus making recycling not only a smart thing to do, but an easy thing to do. But, recycling doesn’t have to stop at home!
If you work in an office that currently has a recycling program, consider yourself lucky in that you work for an avant-garde company and continue doing what you can to support the office recycling program. If you work in an office that does not have a recycling program, do not fret. With the help of some simple guidelines, you can set your office on a path to being part of the solution.
The first step in setting up an office recycling program is gathering the facts. Take an assessment of what is discarded in your office, noting the types and amounts of recyclable materials. Choose to recycle the materials that your office discards the most of and the materials that would be the easiest to collect and separate for recycling. Typical office recyclables include office paper (such as, copier paper, letterhead, mailing materials, and file folders), newspaper, magazines, shipping materials, glass, plastic, steel, and aluminum containers. Contact the recycling company that would service your building and discuss your recycling ideas. The recycling company can help you determine the costs and benefits of staring an office recycling program and answer any questions you may have about recycling.
The next step in setting up your office recycling program is designing the program. This includes getting buy-in and permission from the office management team. Once you have the green light to implement the program, you must organize the collection procedures. This includes setting up the collection containers and the location of these containers, getting the word out to all employees about participating in the recycling program, and making sure any custodial staff is trained in how to handle the recyclable materials.
The third step in getting an office recycling program going is encouraging employee participation. Identify coworkers who show enthusiasm for the program and enlist their help in encouraging and reminding other employees about the program. Send out email reminders and post signage in employee common areas such as break rooms. You could even create incentives for employees such as rewards for reaching specific recycling goals.
The final step in your office recycling program is measuring and sharing the results of the program. You can track the quantity of recycled materials, the quality of recyclables collected, and report on the cost savings to the business. You can also persuade coworkers to take the program one step further by encouraging them to choose recycled materials when making offices supply purchases, such as purchasing recycled paper or using recyclable materials in other ways.