What item should more companies consider recycling?
To help your company in its green efforts, we asked business leaders and sustainability professionals this question for their best advice. From reducing your cardboard footprint to changing the ways you dispose of your ink cartridges, there are several ways that may help your company with its recycling efforts.
Here are eight items companies should consider recycling:
- Encourage Break Room Recycling
- Reduce Your Cardboard Footprint
- Save Your Food Waste
- Focus on Repurposing
- Don’t Trash Your Coffee Grounds
- Reclaim Glass From the Trash
- Get an Easy Recycling Win With Paper
- Change the Way You Ditch Ink Cartridges
Encourage Break Room Recycling
Many employees enjoy bringing microwavable lunches like Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choices to work with them! Although these meals are easy and convenient, they also use a lot of packaging. You should encourage your employees to break down the cardboard box they come in and rinse out the plastic container before dropping them in the recycling bin to ensure they are actually being recycled after the fact!
Elliott Greenberg, Wholesale Janitorial Supply
Reduce Your Cardboard Footprint
As a recycling company, I am tempted to say anything and everything! At Generated, our bread and butter is cardboard recycling. Many B2B businesses, especially those selling products, accumulate tons of cardboard packaging over time, and this material can easily be recycled to help reduce your carbon footprint.
Jonathan Cohen, Generated
Save Your Food Waste
We sell composting worms. Something businesses can start recycling is their food waste. Our composting worms each meat, dairy, bread, and vegetation food scraps. They then convert that material into nitrogen-rich compost. This compost is an amazing organic fertilizer that can be used to build organic gardens.
Jeff Neal, The Critter Depot
Focus on Repurposing
Businesses have become rather savvy at recycling. A huge opportunity that’s still looming where sustainability is concerned is repurposing. Many companies overlook items that could be repurposed or donated in-kind to worthy nonprofits. Consider donating that outdated swag to a cause that could use the items regardless of the branding. And before trashing any equipment or supplies, first look for organizations that would either use or sell the items as a fundraising endeavor.
Tyler Butler, 11Eleven Consulting
Don’t Trash Your Coffee Grounds
Consider recycling coffee grinds and tea bags. You can do this by adding an organics stream to your office recycling program. It’s a perfect way for your office to be zero-waste. Also, when coffee grounds and tea bags are collected and processed properly, they can be used to help grow crops and produce power.
Olivia Young, Conscious Items
Reclaim Glass From the Trash
Glass containers that are used in food and beverage packaging are 100% recyclable. Glass can substitute up to 95% of raw materials when new glass products are being made. It’s important to make sure the glass doesn’t break while inside the bin.
Scott Rosenberg, MaryRuth’s Organics
Get an Easy Recycling Win With Paper
Recommend your employees to think about if a particular document really needs to be printed. Often a digital copy will do. Here a document management system (DMS) does magic to your print-related waste. Secondly, reuse: many companies simply throw out temporary prints for security reasons instead of using them for notes or further temporary printing. Lastly, a proper recycling process — usually via a public service — can help to bring the final bit of paper consumption to good use.
Adam Garcia, The Stock Dork
Change the Way You Ditch Ink Cartridges
More people should know that ink cartridges can be recycled. These cartridges are not biodegradable, so they are taking up unnecessary space if sitting in a landfill. Plus, the plastic from the cartridge can be reused for a variety of different purposes, whether it be new ink cartridges or something else. Every little bit of recycling counts to keep the planet healthy, so if you are not sure whether or not something is recyclable, ask someone or educate yourself.
Ben Teicher, Healthy Directions
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