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- 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
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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!
- 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.
Next: what
else can you do?
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