Office Recycling

callaway92

Hi all

Trying to get decent recycling ideas into the office.

There's 16 full-time but would have a lot of students in at the weekends then (often over 50 at a time).

I have a big bin at the moment for recycling but it's not great. Any good ideas to encourage recycling/things we could do?

Thank you

The Enbalmer

Do you have a water cooler?

We switched from plastic cups (which cannot be recycled) to paper which can be recycled or composted.

Encourage everybody to get a metal water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles..the same goes for coffee cups and disposable knives and forks.

If you can reduce usage of single use items it helps a lot

callaway92

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ya we have a water cooler and got rid of the plastic cups recently - So people can either A) Use glasses that are in the presses here

or Fill up their own bottles etc

Knives/Forks etc here are all silverware.

I think the key is what you said in your last line - Reduce usage of single use items

The Enbalmer

Another thing we do is reuse envelopes and jiffy bags,just stick a label with the new adress over the old one,saves money too.

Printer paper can be reused if its single side only,just put it into the feed tray upside down to print the other side.
All other paper should be cut into pieces to use in place of post its too.
You can use old coffee and jamjars to keep pens and things in..you can print something you like to wrap around it to jazz it up a bit.

callaway92

Some nice suggestions there man - thanks v much

ted1

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Do you have a water cooler?

We switched from plastic cups (which cannot be recycled) to paper which can be recycled or composted.

Encourage everybody to get a metal water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles..the same goes for coffee cups and disposable knives and forks.

If you can reduce usage of single use items it helps a lot

Are you sure the paper cups can be recycled. Contrary to belief most can’t !! They’ve a coating of plastic to make them waterproof which stops them from being recyclable
Best to issue staff with a reusable bamboo cup or similar

The Enbalmer

ted1 wrote: »

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Do you have a water cooler?

We switched from plastic cups (which cannot be recycled) to paper which can be recycled or composted.

Encourage everybody to get a metal water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles..the same goes for coffee cups and disposable knives and forks.

If you can reduce usage of single use items it helps a lot

Are you sure the paper cups can be recycled. Contrary to belief most can’t !! They’ve a coating of plastic to make them waterproof which stops them from being recyclable
Best to issue staff with a reusable bamboo cup or similar

They're very much the lesser of two evils when compared to plastic though.

But yeah,reusable cups are best

Alf Veedersane

Big thing is awareness around recycling especially around what can and can't go in. Worth doing an audit of recycling bin every so often and identify items regularly being put in that should be in general waste bin.

Contamination of the recycling is a big problem so addressing awareness and generally making it easier for people to make the right decisions will help.