Office Green Initiative

I think it would be useful to start by establishing how much of the paper is confidential. If it is feasible to put in a small shredder that is just for the confidential stuff- that would cut down on disposal cost. Shredded paper should not be put in the recycling bin as it impossible to manage, but a local kennels or even staff member with pets might take it on an ongoing basis.

Then you are left with the need for a general recycling bin (paper, cardboard, empty plastic bottles and drinks cans) as well as a residual bin and possibly brown bin. You want to mirror what people doing domestically to reduce confusion.

In our canteen I got a waste station installed- I deliberately had them labelled "recycling" "food waste" and "landfill waste"- the latter to spell out the reality ("residual" doesn't mean anything to people, but in your case it might need to say "landfill/incineration" if the waste is going to Poolbeg or Duleek/Carranstown).

I can't stress how important the branding of the bins is- I even used a lot of pictures at the waste sorting station as some of my colleagues don't seem to read good.

A very clear email from senior management stating that it is a legal requirement for the organistion to segregate it's waste and what each staff member is asked to do would help. I would also offer staff a reusable drinks bottle and coffee cup to get some buy in.

As a matter of interest, approx. how many staff in the office?

With powering down equipment, I know from here that the network people don't like the computers witching off at the socket, so the alternative is to have the software set up so that the machines power themselves off after a certain time, with an override if the computer is active.

With the removal of the individual bins it would also be a good idea to offer staff a desktop recycler:

http://www.ecobin.ie/?product=desktop-recycler

(that is for illustration only, I'm sure ther eare other suppliers).