Office Recycling

1. Nominate a waste recycling champion
   This would be someone who can take ownership of all the recycling and environmental issues, who could also approach the board to put forward new ideas
2. Create an environmental group/committee
   To make sure these important environmental issues are being dealt with in the correct and most cost effective way for your business
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When doing anything you need to make sure your board if you have one or the directors are behind you, as this will make things easier in the long run when needing financial backing or when taking recycling/environmental issues that one step further.
3. Conduct a waste audit
   This should include some or all of the following
   • what waste you company has
• what recycling facilities your company already has.
• where your materials are sourced from
• are the materials you use made from recycled materials
• work out the costs
• look at your purchases, try not to over estimate orders and have a scrap paper area where everyone can get scrap paper to reuse.
4. Research
   Once you have the results of your waste audit, you will be able to see what materials your company needs to work on reducing, recycling or even both.
   When researching for waste collection companies, look in the yellow pages and the internet to make sure you get the best deals on waste collection.

5. Waste services
   If you already have a waste collection service make enquiries in to whether they have recycling facilities maybe you could get a discount with them
   If you're looking to recycle paper, consider whether you need a shredding service for confidential documents
   Some recycling companies (such as shredding services) will provide free collection bins, others will provide outside bins for mixed materials to be placed into. However, you may need to purchase recycling bins for your office
6. Reduce & Reuse tips

Don't forget, reducing waste at the source is always better but you could
• use both sides of paper whenever possible when printing & photocopying
• use scrap paper as often as possible for instance making your own notepad by putting pieces of paper together
• to reduce your organic waste you could get a wormery
7. Communication - count down to the launch

Ensure you tell the whole company of the new recycling facilities and how they should be used. This could be done via email, posters or on your company intranet. Ask for the issue to be raised a team or company meetings and get everyone behind you!
8. Keep records
   Monitor the amount of waste that is recycled and the amount of resources you use (for example how much paper is used within 1 month). This will help you to measure how effective your new recycling system is and whether you need to take extra steps in reducing your waste.

This survey showed that employees want uniform and structure to recycling/environmental policies.
Survey respondents agreed by saying that clearer environmental policies from their employer (31%) and greater access to eco-friendly options, such as recycling bins (55%), would help them do more when at work. (Source: envirowise, 2006)

Here are just a few tips that may also help to reduce your company's environmental impact

1. Environmental Policy
   Find out whether your company already has a policy in place and whether it is being adhered to. There are many benefits in having an environmental policy in place, you can find more details about this and how to write one by clicking here

2. Ask employees
   Have a suggestions box for the office, so you can get a feel for what everyone may think the company is doing right or things they think might need changing
3. Green Reward scheme
   Why not create a scheme which rewards staff for their environmental actions, this is something everyone can aim towards, like performance targets.
4. Watch your energy

Burning the candles at both ends, look at your company's energy usage! For instance, turning monitors and computers off at the end of the day, having windows open in hot weather instead of air conditioning
5. Business Travel

Tackle your business travel, this could be cut by using video conferencing wherever possible, you could also get employees to car share.