With many of us concerned about the impact that both our personal and professional lives are having on the environment, it’s unsurprising that waste is a hot topic right now. Many people around the world are concerned about the huge amounts of materials that are still being sent to landfills, even when they were initially designated to be sent to recycling plants. As a result, everybody is asking themselves the question, what can we do about waste?
This rings especially true in workplaces and offices, where large amounts of waste are often generated unnecessarily. The good news is that there are many simple yet highly effective strategies that can be implemented across any kind of workplace in order to keep waste to a minimum. Not only will this help to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, but it can also help to cut costs.
Consider Lean Principles
The concept of lean was first developed for automobile production lines, but it can be used to eliminate or at least significantly reduce waste in any kind of manufacturing environment. If your work produces products, chances are that it is also producing more waste than it needs to, often through simple mistakes such as using too much of a certain material or accidentally using the wrong materials, causing the product to be wasted. Lean principles allow you to:
- Quality check at every stage of the development process in order to check that the right materials are being used and that production is on the right track
- Delegate tasks to relevant employees easily so that everybody is working on the right job at the right time
- Easily communicate details of the project between employees, teams, and departments so that miscommunications, which often lead to waste, can be avoided
Click here to learn more about the concept of eliminating waste through lean principles and how they can be applied to your business.
Reduce Paper Usage
Paper is often one of the items that is wasted the most in offices, whether it’s from printer testing, scribbling notes down on scraps of paper that aren’t needed afterward, or failing to utilize as much of the paper that you have available as possible. There are several methods of reducing paper usage in your company, which include:
- Print on both sides of the paper where possible; most printers and photocopiers have settings that can easily be changed to print on both sides of the page and can cut your paper consumption in half
- Go paper-free; sending electronic invoices and email newsletters instead of paper ones can be just as, if not even more effective and help you only use paper when you really need to.
- Pay bills online. You can also reduce your paper use further by selecting online billing for your business utilities
Make Recycling a Habit
While you can definitely cut down on the amount of waste that your business generates, there may be some instances where it is inevitable. However, being able to quickly determine whether or not a product is recyclable will help employees make sure that it is disposed of correctly and given a better chance of being reused rather than ending up in landfill. Encourage more recycling across your company by:
- Providing good quality, well-labeled recycling bins in easy to access areas throughout the building
- Providing posters and other informational signs to instruct staff on which products should be placed in recycling bins rather than in the general trash
- Incentivize staff to recycle more, for example, you might want to hold friendly competitions where teams can compete for the most items recycled at the end of the week
Reduce Cleaning Waste
Keeping your office or workplace clean, tidy and hygiene is important but in the process of doing this, there’s also the potential to create a lot of waste. You can help to reduce waste when you clean your workplace by:
- Using cloth tea-towels in the kitchen rather than paper towels where possible, and cloth hand towels in employee restrooms. While having to take these and wash them might mean a bit more effort, it also means that you can significantly reduce the number of paper products that your business wastes
- Use eco-friendly cleaning products in spray bottles so that you can easily control the amount of product you use for cleaning
Conduct an Energy Audit
Don’t forget that it’s not just physical waste to think about when it comes to reducing waste in your business. In fact, energy is a commodity that many businesses waste a lot of without even realizing it, and it all has an effect on the environment – and your monthly running costs. Conducting an energy audit will help you determine where energy could be conserved in your company. Most business energy providers will even audit your business free of charge to help you conserve more energy. In the meantime, there are several small steps that you can take to reduce energy wastage such as:
- Eliminating drafts from windows and doors
- Opening blinds to let natural light in rather than switching the lights on during the day where possible
- Turning off light switches and electronic devices when they are not in use
- Installing automatic light switches to avoid forgetfulness
- Using energy-saving light bulbs
- Upgrading to modern, Energy Star approved office equipment
Reduce Waste During an Office Upgrade
Maybe your business has been doing well recently and you’ve decided to upgrade your office space and make it a nicer place to be and more comfortable for all the staff. You could be purchasing new computers and office equipment or investing in more ergonomic office furniture. Either way, disposing correctly of the old equipment that you’re replacing is important. You can reduce waste when upgrading your office space by:
- Selling the second-hand equipment to other companies; many new startups, for example, will be on the lookout for budget-friendly, preloved office equipment to get them started
- Using approved recycling centers for any furniture, equipment, and electronics
- Selling old electronics like computers or laptops to staff at a discount or repurposing them to provide them as part of a company benefit scheme
Say No to Single-Use Plastic
There’s no denying that single-use plastic products can be very convenient in the workplace. Plastic cups for water fountains or Styrofoam cups by the coffee maker might have become a common sight in your company, but the sad truth is that this generates a huge amount of non-recyclable waste. Plastic products such as these are not, in fact, widely recycled and they take billions of years to biodegrade, making them some of the most damaging products to the planet. Instead, consider:
- Providing ceramic mugs and cups for employee hot drinks – after all, they’re much nicer to drink from!
- Encouraging employees to bring their own refillable water bottles to use at water fountains, or provide them with tumblers
- Getting some cheap plates and bowls for employee lunches and some silverware for employees to use if needed, but encourage them to bring their own from home too
- Providing designated spaces in the kitchen or food preparation areas for employees to bring in and leave their own mugs, plates, and silverware at work
Make Bringing Lunch in Easier
Encourage your staff to bring their own lunches into work rather than going out and buying a pre-packaged meal or sandwich. Not only will this help the company as a whole work towards the initiative of reducing waste significantly, but it can also have some seriously positive cost savings for employees. You might want to consider implementing the following to make bringing lunch in easier and more pleasant for employees, such as:
- Providing food preparation stations with a microwave, toastie maker, and other equipment that employees can use to heat up their food
- Providing ample refrigerator space for employees to store their packed lunches until break time
- Making sure that there are ample social areas for employees to sit comfortably to eat their food around the office, away from their desks
Run a Waste Awareness Day
No matter how much you try on your own to help your company reduce waste, it’s inevitable that you are only going to get the best results from everybody working together as a team. Bear in mind that some members of your staff may be less knowledgeable than others when it comes to the impact that waste is having on society, the environment, and the plant itself and may benefit from some extra education around the subject to help spur them into action. Holding a waste and recycling awareness day is a great way to encourage your employees to improve their awareness of this important issue and they may even decide to implement the same strategies at home. Consider:
- Educating employees on the impact of waste on the planet and climate change
- Providing education surrounding what happens to waste once it leaves the building; many people don’t give it much thought after throwing it in the trash
- Providing educational materials to help employees make the best decisions regarding waste in the future
When everybody works together, you can make huge changes to the amount of waste that your business produces.
This content is a joint venture between our publication and our partner. We do not endorse any product or service in the article.