It’s 2020 and it’s likely that no matter what size of business you work in, your facility has some type of Internal office recycling bins. However, your actual recycling program may be very limited, and not used correctly. Many businesses believe that they don’t have the resources or funding to increase their office recycling program. But that is just NOT true! Basic steps can be made to ramp up your current recycling program and help you save your business money. Here are 10 tips to support and increase your office recycling, and make what you already have more effective:
Collect more…
In addition to recycling paper, there are plenty of other waste items your office can stop going to landfill. Recycling goes way beyond paper, cans, and bottles these days. Computers, cell phones, and other e-waste items are just a few of the many materials recycling companies will reclaim and repurpose. Oversee a waste audit of your company to help gain a better understanding of what materials are being trashed, and if any these items can be recycled instead.
Reduce The Amount Of Waste Coming Into Your Facility
When it comes to the 3Rs of recycling and seriously increasing your waste diversion rate, the best thing your business can do is REDUCE. This means aiming your attention on your supply stream and what you bring into your facility. Consider promoting your new recycling program to your suppliers and work to bring in as much recyclable or compostable items as possible. If you can control what’s coming into your company, you have a much better chance at diverting more waste from landfill, because the waste your facility is producing is already recyclable, reusable or compostable.
Introduce a recycling station
Take away staff’s individual waste and recycling bins! Yes, you read that correctly. At Unisan we passionately 
recommend centralised waste and recycling stations for your internal office recycling bins. Why? Because when employees sort their own waste they become so much more aware of what they’re throwing out rather than just thoughtlessly throwing it in the bin under their desk. As they learn what can and can’t be recycled or composted from the clear graphics on the bin station, they are likely to become more recycling conscious and chuck the waste in the right stream, which prevents stream contamination.
Make sure the internal office recycling bins are designed to encourage staff, students or members of the general public to dispose of their waste responsibly. Office Recycling Bins are perfect for schools, universities, and professional working environments where large volumes of recyclable waste are stored.
Separate compostable material
Collecting food waste is one thing your office can start doing if you aren’t already. By adding an organics stream to your internal office recycling bins, you can considerably increase your organization’s diversion rate and get so much closer to zero-waste. When compostable materials are collected and processed properly, they can be used for all number of things, including to help grow crops, revive nutrient deficient land, and even produce power!
Here’s what you could collect:
Food scraps
Paper towels and napkins
Coffee grinds & tea bags
Cardboard sleeves from hot beverage cups
Compostable plates and cutlery
Consider designing your own bespoke recycling station, where you can create the right waste streams you need, with the right signage, and the right designs.
Change to longopac continuous liner system
Our absolute best suggestion on how to get the best out of your internal office recycling bin is to use our endlessly clever longopac continous liner system. Each liner only takes 20 seconds to change and the next liner is always there ready to go, which can cut your time spent emptying bins by 38%! Read our case study here on how British gas saved one cleaner 3 hours per shift after changing bins to our longopac system!
With Longopac, every bag is 100% full, so only the exact amount of liner needed is used. Also, the way the liner material is constructed means they use 55% less plastic than standard bin liners, but are 4x stronger. Because the waste is compacted, there is less wasted space due to liners being full of air, meaning a further reduction in plastic. As a consequence the waste takes up much less space in your external bins, therefore reducing the frequency of your collections.
To keep in line with your office interiors style, you can put the system inside an existing cabinet or waste station, or design your own bespoke recycling station with them placed inside.
Ditch disposables 
Take a proactive step like banning disposables in the workplace. No more single use coffee cups, plastic cups, plates, forks and knives etc! Tell each employee to bring their own reusable coffee cup, and water bottle. Also, ask them to avoid bringing their lunch in paper or plastic bags which are used once and then tossed, or even provide them all with a tupperware container with your company brand on! Encourage staff to be mindful of what they bring into the office. A litter-less lunch is just one initiative your organization can take on to reduce the amount of daily waste coming into the facility. These small changes can drastically reduce the amount of coffee cups and plastic bottles filling up your waste and recycling streams.
Go paperless
Ok, it may not be realistic for your office to go abolish paper completely, but there are several steps your business can take to decrease how much paper is used or wasted. Encourage employees to edit and proof all their documents on their computer, or print on recycled paper. Unless it’s a formal document, always print on both sides of a sheet of paper before recycling it. All internal communications like memos or announcements can and soul be send through email, or your online messaging system.
When it comes to admin like purchasing and invoicing, work with customer service and accounting to switch all billing to online. Let your customers and suppliers know you are going paperless and request that your suppliers and banking send e-statements rather than mail. It’s now 2020 and widely accepted in this digital age! You will be surprised how much this makes a difference to your internal office recycling bins – you won’t have to empty the paper bin anywhere near as much.
Try signage around the office
Besides clear and very visual signage on your waste and recycling station, try putting signs on the wall, or even tent cards on the table in your office lunchroom. These could have messages like “Don’t Forget to Recycle” or “Did you know ____ this can be recycled?” written on them. These simple statements are fantastic reminders to staff on how to properly sort their waste when they’re done eating, and increase your office recycling rates.
Appoint a green champion
Continually monitor and report on the progress of the internal office recycling program. Carry out regular waste audits to identify any opportunities to divert more waste from landfill. Display your results and goals near your recycling bins to encourage people to do their best. People like to see their efforts are affecting change! One great idea is to appoint a green champion to encourage and lead by example, and to change the mindset in your company. They need to create a constant positive force for the campaign, and keep everyone on board to create and maintain a culture of recycling and waste reduction.
Some great ideas the green champion could initiate:
- Promote re-usable coffee cups and water bottles.
- Install a water cooler so staff can re-fill bottles with chilled, filtered water.
- Encourage staff to be more economical with their printing
- Adjusting printer settings; a lot of printers have a ‘draft’ setting which uses a lot less ink but is perfectly good enough quality for most office use.
Make it easy for everyone to get involved in using your internal office recycling bins with our range of solutions. We’ve got all the recycling bins for office, eye-catching signs and smart solutions you’ll ever need to create your own waste management station. With recycling bins to suit every budget and office we are sure you will find something!
Our recycling bins for office work well in any workplace and help you show your clients and staff that you mean business when it comes to looking after the environment.