Getting More Out Of Your Trash

Create An Office Recycling Program

14 May 2015

Samantha Bailey

The workplace is one area where people can be encouraged to care more for the environment, and the carbon footprint can be greatly reduced. Because employees are already used to throwing their trash away, getting them to recycle should be a fairly straightforward process. The key is to get personnel to want to recycle and to make it simple. Employees are not going to trek all over the building to find a recycling container, and they aren't going to spend time trying to determine what is recyclable and what is not. If recycling is easy to do, chances are that workers will get on board. 

Education

Teach personnel in your office the value of recycling. Here are some ways you can accomplish this. 

• Hang charts and posters about recycling in break rooms or other places where people congregate. Use posters with bright colors, graphs that are easy to understand and not too many words. 
• Send short emails with one statistic or interesting fact about recycling. 
• Ask employees to share ideas and knowledge about the good recycling can do. 
• Ask managers to conduct short meetings that focus on recycling and let employees know the benefits that recycling can offer. 

Some people will want to recycle, but might not be sure how. Many people have heard conflicting or complicated rules about recycling, such as whether or not to take the caps off of plastic bottles or whether a container that held food can be recycled. Make recycling in your office as easy as possible, and make sure every employee gets an email with specific information on the process. Place informational signs or posters near recycling containers to remind people what goes where. 

Make Recycling as Easy as Throwing Out Trash

Try to make sure that every trash can in the office is close to a recycling container. It should be no more trouble to throw a bottle into a recycling bin than it is to throw it into the trash. 

Recycling containers should be easily distinguished from trash cans so that employees are not confused. 

Don't make employees sort their recycling if you can help it. Recycling can become a chore when people are required to make a decision about which bin to throw something into. Most commercial trash removal and recycling services will sort the recycling for you, so your personnel doesn't have to do it themselves. 

Offer Rewards

Everyone puts more effort into a task when there is a reward involved. Get people excited about recycling by offering rewards. 

• Divide employees into teams or groups based on the area or floor where they work. Offer a prize like gift cards or cash to the group that is able to recycle the most over a set period of time. Weigh each group's recycling each day, and send emails about who is winning to encourage competition. 
• Create a challenge for the entire staff based on how much you expect them to recycling over a period of time like a week or a month. Offer everyone a pizza lunch or another prize if the challenge is met. 
• Challenge another office to a recycling competition. Offer one office a prize or simply have the competition for bragging rights.

Take a Pledge

Recycling@Work offers a sample of a pledge businesses, office and other workplaces can use when asking employees to recycle. It outlines specific steps you can take to increase recycling and decrease waste. 

Creating an office recycling program does not have to be difficult and can be a winning situation for everyone. Recycling plastic, paper and other materials is one way that everyone can help contribute to a cleaner world. Teaching employees the value of recycling and then getting them excited about a recycling program will help build staff unity and will also encourage everyone to recycle at home as well as at work. 

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