With organisations constantly seeking new ways to make a positive impact on the environment, recycling is a simple yet vital trend that many have brushed past or failed to properly introduce. As a result, commercial spaces are generating masses of waste and contributing to overfilling landfills, even despite their legal duty to minimise waste and ethically dispose of it. If your business is guilty of not doing enough to implement a recycling regime in the workplace, these four simple tips can get you on the road to a more ethical and sustainable workplace.
When introducing recycling into the workplace, it’s important to make it practical. Often, many businesses invest in the wrong recycling bins for your workspace, which may prove pointless. It’s recommended to calculate your average daily commercial waste and find bins that comfortably fit that amount of waste.
In order to prompt employees to recycle their waste rather than just binning it, consider removing personal general waste bins placed under their desks. Although they prove convenient throughout the course of the day, this convenience deters employees from adhering to recycling rules and using the correct bins for their waste. Not only will it be more eco-friendly, but it will likely also cut costs in the long-run since you can save money on bin liners and the time paid to cleaners to dispose of each separate bin’s waste. A win-win!
Unfortunately, many commercial spaces have poor communication with their external cleaners, largely because these attend the workplace at the end of office hours. This can often lead to a great deal of miscommunication and a mismatched approach to recycling.
To resolve these issues before they occur, it is a fantastic idea to effectively engage with and communicate your recycling goals and processes with the cleaners from the start. This can easily be achieved by emailing the same notices and resources regarding the initiative to cleaners as well as employees as well as inviting them to meetings on the matter. After all, a more unified approach to recycling within your workplace will certainly enhance your results!
Raising awareness of your new recycling initiative is vital to introducing recycling into the workplace. Most of us would be surprised by how little people actually know about what can be recycled and the benefits of doing so.
In particular, set some time aside for a quick induction presentation, emailing a brochure, or dotting some resources around the office encouraging people to recycle and educating them on how to do so. Great ideas for graphics and posters can be found on sites such as Pinterest!
If your budget allows, it might be a good idea to invest in recyclables such as reusable lunch ware and bottles for all of your staff to use. This will prevent the litter created from their lunches and reduce the number of single-use plastics binned daily within your workplace. Although it might be a large one-off cost, it is highly likely that if used, these will significantly reduce the amount of waste amassed in your commercial space and potentially even reduce the long-term costs of disposal.