We Collect Rubbish

Applying this philosophy in your business and waste management or recycling strategies can not only positively impact your company by reducing waste but also better organise your operations. With the following tips, you can focus on recycling as a last resort, as you can repurpose, reuse, reduce and more before you dispose of your waste. Let’s get started:

Refuse

This is the first step you need to take in your waste management strategy. Learning to refuse waste will take some doing, but incorporating this part of the job into your business strategy will help minimise waste. Talk to your team about refusing to buy non-recyclable and wasteful products. When you work with vendors, you should refuse unnecessary product packaging and do your best to set standards and expectations early on in the process, so you can make sure your organisation refuses waste in the first place.

Reduce

Reducing wasteful, harmful and non-recyclable products is a massive step forward. Reducing your dependency on these products will result in far fewer waste materials ending up in landfills around the country. You should use the minimum amount of materials necessary to avoid needless waste. For example, double printing documents to save paper and cut your waste output by half. There are other ways of approaching waste, such as addressing single-use plastics, plastic packaging, styrofoam cups, organic waste and more.

Reuse

Single-use plastics have created this wasteful culture of normalising consumer behaviour of throwing away materials that could be reused. The rate of plastic consumption worldwide has become quite terrible for the environment. To help reduce waste, you can reuse items throughout your workplace instead of focusing on buying new ones. Focus on one area of your business, then move to the next. Replace single-use eating utensils, styrofoam cups, water bottles, Paper plates and so forth with reusable or compostable alternatives. Once you cover an area, prioritise reuse for other areas of your business, such as packing peanuts, cardboard boxes, food containers, rechargeable batteries, printer cartridges, etc.

Repurpose

You can repurpose every item you can’t reduce, reuse, or refuse. Many people out there looking to have a green approach to their company’s operations prefer this method over upcycling. You may be surprised that common office products may have many uses you have not suspected were possible. You can try using wasted printer paper as scrap paper, cardboard boxes for storing supplies, binder cups to keep your chargers and power cords in place and a whole lot more—coffee mugs, tin cans, mason jars, you name it. Designate an area in the office as an upcycle station for storing and collecting supplies, then encourage your employees to add items to the station when they don’t need them, checking it before you buy new supplies. That way, you can cut down on needless purchases and overall waste, keeping better track of your inventory and 

Recycle

The last step on this list is the most important - recycling. Once you’ve gone through all the other steps, recycling is the most environmentally friendly way of disposing waste. If your business isn’t doing it already, you should start collecting cardboard, mixed paper products, aluminium, plastics, glass and organics and keep them separated. Most companies will have a dramatic decrease in waste when they set up an effective recycling program. Check out what you can do and give your employees the proper training to make recycling a part of your business operations.

©We Collect Rubbish