Increase your office recycling, with these quick hacks

Want to increase your office recycling and sustainability game?!

Well, we’re here to help. We have come up with six clever tips and techniques to improve your office’s recycling rate and overall sustainability. It is said that the average workplace of 100 workers generates 20 bin bags of rubbish every week. Unfortunately, in many workplaces the majority of the waste thrown away can be recycled and is often overlooked.  

These days, companies from various industries are vowing to lessen their environmental impact by creating environmentally responsible workplaces. This entails putting in place policies and programmes to encourage eco-friendly behaviour that will increase recycling rates, offset carbon emissions and save money from efficiencies. The brand enhancement from being more sustainable has also proven to help companies attract and retain customers and their best talent.

So let’s get on with the tips and tricks that will change up your office recycling game.

Clear signage and education  

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Being sustainable and recycling has become mainstream, but do we know what waste goes where and what causes contamination? Unfortunately, the average recycling contamination rate is 25%, or 1 in 4 items, which is still pretty high. To ramp up recycling and reduce contamination in your office, place clear waste signage on bins that correlate with the correct waste stream. 

You can download our recycling signage here. Also, use our free waste management course and recycling symbols blog post to educate your colleagues.

Host Bywaters Waste awareness days and beach cleans 

At Bywaters, we can provide you with fun and engaging events for your office to learn about recycling. Our waste awareness days feature a mixture of educational material and exciting activities, such as our latest quiz, “take it or leaf it”, where contestants can win a plant from a green wall if they get questions on sustainability correct. We also have berry fun smoothie bikes that showcase an environmentally friendly way to produce healthy fruit smoothies. In addition, we recently hosted a waste awareness day at the largest office building ever built in Britain, 22 Bishopsgate. Watch the recap here. 

We also hostbeach cleans, from local waterways to seaside hot spots. As well as clearing rubbish and helping to protect wildlife, these events raise awareness of sustainable waste management and the need to keep plastic out of the marine ecosystem. Through these events, Bywaters collaborates with you to continue making a meaningful impact and setting an example for others to follow!

Reduce paper

These days digital docs are king, but paper usage is still very high. According to recently released figures, the international paper production business has a carbon footprint about three times that of the much-criticised aircraft industry. So before printing, ask yourself if it actually needs to be printed. There are many ways of reducing paper, such as sending an email, using a cloud database, printing double-sided documents instead of single-sided, reusing old paper, and even using your phone to take down notes.

Remove desk bins

Sometimes less is more. Removing desk bins has been proven to be an effective way of minimising waste. It encourages the use of central recycling points, increasing recycling  by up to 30%, dramatically reducing your waste management costs, according to Queen’s University.

Reuse scheme 

Want to get rid of leftover furniture or electronics? Don’t throw them away, give them away instead and prevent waste from going to landfills. Last year our reuse scheme helped facilities offset 161,105kg of waste from going to landfills, prevented 13,884kg of CO2 from entering our atmosphere and donated £514,274 worth of goods. In addition, where furniture is not needed locally, it has been donated to hospitals in disadvantaged locations, such as Somalia.

Use reusable bottles 

Drinking from reusable bottles is better for your environment, health and wallet. Every year 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought in the UK each year, all of which must be thrown away. It has been estimated that just over half of these are recycled, resulting in over 3 billion bottles being incinerated, or ending up in landfills and our oceans. 

Using reusable bottles reduces the need for plastic bottles and the reliance on consumerism. To help lessen the use of plastic bottles in London, The Mayor has partnered up with Thames Water and the London Drinking Fountain Fund to install water fountains all over London, so before you go into the office be sure to fill up your reusable bottles at any of the London drinking fountain fund stations.