It’s partially a company’s responsibility to ensure that their employees are environmentally responsible. Recycling at work and home can be two entirely different beasts, so businesses need to make sure there aren’t any barriers in place that can put a halt to recycling rates in the office.
Lack of a Recycling Program
Probably the biggest barrier to recycling is not having a program in place at all – come on its 2014, you really have no excuse! Most municipalities have a recycling program of some type that will gladly collect your recycling bin materials to put outside your office building.
It has actually been proven to be cheaper collecting and sorting recyclables than gathering only garbage in some municipalities!
Having a recycling program in your city or town is all well and good, but in order to get people recycling in your office, programs need to be simple and convenient. Offices need to encourage employees to take the extra step and put recyclables in the recycling bin and not take the easy route by putting everything in the waste receptacle.
Lack of Recycling Bins in the Office
The rate at which your office recycles is dependent on the type of recycling containers you have in your work space. If you’re worried about having big, bulky collection bins invading your office, there are multiple options available to you that will easily meet your office recycling needs – with the amount of styles, sizes, shapes and finishes that recycling bins come in -the perfect container for your work space is out there!
Lack of Signage and Education in the Office
Now that you have the perfect recycling bins in place, the next step is to make sure that your employees are using them. One huge factor that prevents people from properly recycling is a lack of knowledge.
Contact your local municipality to see if they offer any posters, signage or education tools that can be put up around your workplace – proper signage is guaranteed to increase recycling rates.
Don’t just stop there, inspire everyone in the workplace to start being more sustainable – encourage employees to use refillable water bottles, to put their lunches in reusable containers, or hold inter-office contests to see which individuals or teams can recycle the most or (better yet) achieve zero waste!
