At Metro Waste Authority, we make recycling our business everyday, and we love to help others make recycling their business too. These are just some of the resources we find beneficial when understanding the importance of recycling in the work place and implementing your own program.
Office Recycling Checklist
How are you doing with your recycling program at work? This simple checklist will help you find out and give you ideas on how to improve.
My Office:
- Recycles office paper, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and junk mail.
- Keeps employees informed and educated about recycling in the office.
- Recycles toner cartridges.
- Properly disposes of its hazardous waste.
- Stresses using both sides of paper when printing and copying.
- Reuses fax cover sheets or uses fax transmission labels instead of a cover sheet.
- Makes use of the back side of waste paper for faxes, or as scratch paper.
- Uses reusable glasses and cups rather than disposables throughout the office.
- Purchases paper with 30-100% post-consumer recycled-paper content.
- Evaluates all purchases thinking about the “cradle to grave” costs such as liability, environmental impacts and employee safety during the manufacture, use and disposal of a product.
Help the Environment at Work
Things You Can Do:
- Replace disposable drinking containers and your food baggies with a reusable container.
- Set computers to sleep mode after 5 minutes of idle time and shut them down at night.
- Take the stairs instead of an elevator.
- Recycle your printer cartridges and if possible purchase refillable cartridges.
- Offer customers online billing and pay your business’s bills online.
- Don’t print something unless absolutely necessary – and when you do print, use both sides of the paper.
- Clean up your office air with plants like philodendrons and peace lilies.
- Plug your electronics into a power strip so you can turn the strip off when you are not using your electronics. Devices still use electricity when they are plugged in, even if they are turned off.
- Purchase office or promotional materials with recycled content in them.
