You can recycle at home so why not at work?

An office recycling system can improve staff morale and your business’s image without adding cost or requiring much to set up and maintain.

Take a look at the Department of Conservation’s Invercargill Office

The recycling system:

• Two types of paper recycling boxes are in all staff work areas
• “Office paper” is for white printer quality paper.
• “Mixed paper” is for all other paper, e.g. magazines, post-its, newspaper.
• Cardboard is placed in central storage areas of all floors for recycling.
• Toner cartridges are collected and recycled by manufacturer
• Recycle containers for foodscraps, tins, aluminium cans, plastic and glass bottles are located in the café.

Other measures – efficient electricity use:

• Staff have been encouraged to turn off lights and fan heaters when not in use (there are reminder signs by light switches)
• Staff are also encouraged to log-off and shut down computers at night.
• Duplicate lighting has been removed.

Results:

DoC staff member Paul Skeggs comments:

• We are ‘walking the talk’
• The system provides consistency for staff – recycling at home and work
• We recycle to a much larger degree and have much less waste (at least 30 rubbish bins were removed when the system was set up).
• It's simple, not more effort is required by staff to use the system.
• We have also made lots of electricity savings $$$ (up to 30%).

Thanks to WasteNet Southland and Southland Community Wastebusters Trust for providing this information.

For more information on how DOC is becoming sustainable click here.