East Melbourne Office Recycling Guide

Companies are joining the trend in becoming more “green”, or more Mother Earth-friendly. This is a very encouraging trend because companies actually produce much more waste than ordinary households. Little by little, employers want to identify how they can slowly introduce office recycling to their employees.

Are you an employer or manager looking to start a recycling program at work? Here is an Office

Recycling Guide to help you:

First of all, form a Recycling Team. Identify a project manager or coordinator or for larger companies, a team maybe more appropriate, incorporating members from various departments to ensure good coordination. Search for leaders who are passionate about recycling, who are good at implementing projects and are also good communicators. They should be able to “sell” the idea of an office recycling program not just to the Management, but also to the employees who will be taking part on the project. Infecting the employees with the passion to recycle can ensure the success of the program. Getting their ideas at the start of the process also gets them more involved and helps make sure the program is more tailor-fit to the organization.

The next step is to understand what kind of waste is generated in the workplace. An easy place to start is the paper waste – however, bear in mind that some documents might contain sensitive or private company information, thus making them more difficult to recycle. Make sure to also consider other kinds of waste like used printer cartridges, old electronics or even simple drink bottles that can also be recycled.

Once the waste is identified, a plan how to collect and dispose of the recyclables should be drafted. Start contacting garbage collectors if they collect recyclable materials, or look for other companies that specialize in collecting specific waste, for example old electronics or e-waste. Try to see if the company can make money through recycling, as this can fund prizes or freebies for employees who contribute to the program.

At the office, start preparing recycling bins with different colors and labels for the different kinds of waste to be recycled. Make sure that the bins are equally distributed and can be easily accessed by employees to encourage recycling.

As the company begins to launch the office recycling program, it is time to spread the word. Conduct sessions to introduce the program to employees, educating them on the process, demonstrating the different bins and which kind of waste goes to which bin. ANother source is our waste management guide. Introduce the recycling champions who can help employees with the recycling at the office, or print a comprehensive guide close to the recycling bins in different offices.

This is also a good time to rollout a rewards program linked to the office recycling program – this helps encourage employees in participating. Money earned through recycled waste can be used to treat teams to lunch, or fund an outing.

As the company rolls out the program and the employees get used to recycling at the office, the Recycling team can take the project even further. In fact, doing an office recycling program can help an organization better understand its use of resources. For example, is the company using too much paper printing documents that are not so necessary? How can the company shift to a paperless operation, or at least reduce the usage of paper? Such steps cannot just reduce the trash needed to recycle, but lead to some significant savings for the company in the first place. At the end of the day, every company should aim to develop sustainable business practices that make use of resources wisely and environmental-friendly.

Another great output of an office recycling program is eventually getting employee-led recycling ideas. Make sure the company is willing to support these initiatives that might not even require much from the management. For example, simply allowing employees to store their own cups or reusable mugs in the office pantry instead of single-use cups can halve the waste generated by employees. With awareness comes good new habits that can even extend to outside the workplace. Just think of how much waste can be reduced when all employees of a 5,000-head organization brings the behavior back home with them!

In fact, it will be very difficult to identify disadvantages to starting your own office recycling program. It will require a bit of relearning and hard work, more than just instantly dumping trash into any bin, but as with any habit, it just takes time before it just becomes instinctive.

For more information on Waste and Recycling in Melbourne click here – http://ezyskips.com.au/