In celebration of National Recycling Week, which runs from Monday 7 November to Sunday 13 November, it’s important to think about how our impact on the environment today will affect our future generations. Here are nine simple ways your business can create a more sustainable workplace.
1. Make recycling easy
Recycling stations are becoming more popular in workplaces as businesses move to more sustainable practices. Recycling significantly helps reduce pollution, lower energy use, divert waste from landfill and protect animals and their habitats.
To encourage your team to recycle, the key is to make it simple and accessible. Invest in colour-coded bins and educate employees on responsible waste disposal and how to check on-product labelling. Remove smaller bins from under desks to increase conscious recycling habits and station colour-coded bins throughout the office, in breakrooms and other common areas.
2. Purchase products made from recycled materials
Why buy recycled? Buying items made from recycled materials reduces your environmental impact. It also contributes to the recycling loop and assists the circular economy in preventing waste-to-landfill, saving precious resources and energy that would otherwise be used in the manufacture of new products1. Consider implementing a sustainable procurement policy to incorporate the use of recycled products into your day-to-day functions. Be a part of creating demand for recycled materials and shop products made from recycled and sustainable components.
3. Be more energy efficient
Did you know on average, computer workstations make up the biggest non-essential energy drain in the everyday office? It can cost up to $45 a year to run a single computer system 24 hours a day. That means for just 100 computers operating 24 hours a day, it could cost you up to $4,500 a year!2 Not to mention the cost this can have to the environment. Set automatic timers to ensure non-essential lights, appliances and machinery are powered down at the end of the day.
Switching to energy-saving lightbulbs can also help save you energy and money. Plus, they last up to 25% longer.3
4. Use recycled paper
Did you know that paper is one of the most used products in Australian workplaces, with the average office worker consuming 50kg of paper at work per annum.4
Make the switch to products with recycled content, which use up to 50% less energy and 90% less water than producing from virgin trees.5
Beyond recycled copy paper, many other paper-based products have recycled content alternatives including notebooks, office storage and wooden cutlery.
5. Rethink your plastic use
On average, Australians use 130kg of plastic per person each year, of which less than 12% is recycled. According to WWF, up to 130,000 tonnes of plastic will find its way into our waterways and the ocean.6
Where you can, switch to paper or aluminium alternatives or re-usable options.
6. Recycle your used cartridges
In Australia, over 25 million ink cartridges end up in landfill every year and can take anywhere between 400 to 1,000 years to decompose.7 Ensure you are recycling your used cartridges to prolong their lifecycle and help close the loop.
7. Dispose of e-waste responsibly
Incorrect disposable of e-waste can have devastating environmental effects that pollute our soil and water. In Australia alone, e-waste is responsible for 70% of toxic chemicals and electronic waste is growing at three times the rate of any other waste stream. If half of the televisions discarded annually were recycled, 23,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions would be saved.8
Our IT Asset Disposal program can put a value on your old IT assets, providing you with a credit to put towards future Winc purchases. We can also provide an environmentally friendly recycling service for any item that has no commercial resale value.
8. Choose Fairtrade coffee
Many workers are fuelled by their morning cup of coffee with 16.3 million coffees consumed on an average day in Australia.9
Growing, processing and transporting coffee results in greenhouse gas emissions. Switch to more sustainable coffee and tea brands that are Fairtrade and sustainably grown. With brands now offering coffee pod alternatives that are recyclable, you can make the switch and still get your daily coffee fix.
9. Clean more sustainably
After use, cleaning chemicals are inevitable washed down sinks, drains and toilets and released into the environment, making their way into our waterways, air and soil. These harmful chemicals can take a long time to degrade or may not degrade at all, killing organisms in our water sources that are essential for maintaining the natural ecosystem.10
Many sustainable and eco-friendly options like products from Cleera or Northfork Chemicals reduce or eliminate the use of these pollutants, minimising risk to users and the environment.
Don’t just recycle. Buy recycled. To browse our range of eco-friendly workplace product alternatives, shop our sustainable range online and contribute to a brighter future.
References:
1Planet Art, 2020, ‘Recycled Products Directory’, <https://recyclingnearyou.com.au/education/recycledproducts>
2Switchboard In A Box, 2018, ‘Energy Consumption at Work: Leaving Your Monitors on Costs Money’, <https://www.makeitcheaper.com.au/blog/energy-consumption-at-work-leaving-your-monitors-on>
3Wise Marketer Staff, 2021, ‘Cost Cutting Measures You Should Implement in Your Small Business’, <https://thewisemarketer.com/retail/cost-cutting-measures-you-should-implement-in-your-small-business/>
4ACT Government City Services, 2018, ‘PAPER & CARD RECYCLING’, <https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1368620/180438-ACT-NOWaste-Paper-Factsheet-v8.pdf>
5Whisper, 2020, ‘Roll into Recycled’, <https://www.whisper.com.au/sustainability/recycled-paper>
6WWF, 2018, ‘Help us encourage politicians to beat plastic pollution and phase out the 10 worst single-use plastics in your state or territory!’, <https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/plastics>
7Ford, J., 2021, ‘How do ink cartridges affect the environment?’, <https://answerstoall.com/science/how-do-ink-cartridges-affect-the-environment/>
8Clean Up Australia, 2019, ‘E Waste’, <https://www.cleanup.org.au/e-waste>
9Prikhodko, A., 2019, ‘Origin: Australia’, <https://www.freshcup.com/origin-australia/>
10In-Tec Commercial Cleaning, 2021, ‘5 benefits of adopting sustainable cleaning products in your workplace’, <https://www.in-tec.com.au/learning-centre/5-benefits-sustainable-cleaning-products-workplace>
