If you’re human, you’re probably familiar with the process of digestion: you consume food to gain energy and then dispose of excess, unusable waste. That is, you excuse yourself, use the restroom, answer nature’s call, or however you choose to refer to the processes of defecation and urination. Typically we view the products of our trips to the little boys’ or girls’ room as disgusting, sickly, and unmentionable, and this could very well be an evolutionary measure to assure that we don’t consume these—for us, at least—poisonous byproducts. But if we think about “waste” differently, with nature’s bigger picture in mind, it’s clear that digestion doesn’t end when we flush the toilet. Read the full story

It’s hard to imagine a world without Starbucks. The coffee giant serves almost six million customers a day or 2,190,000,000 beverages a year. That’s enough to give every American seven grande cappucinos (though I’m sure there are quite a few people who drink about that amount daily). There’s no denying the power and influence Starbucks has over not only the United States, but the whole world. Read the full story

Ireland has long been known as the island with forty shades of green, and in the last twenty years the green movement has begun to live up to that image. During that time a disparate group of ecologists, business people, scientists, politicians and others have been working together to develop sustainable living on the island. Read the full story

Are you in interested in recycling and reducing waste and need some resources to get started? Below is a list of recycling resources, including helpful sites for waste reduction, green purchasing, printing and packaging, composting and food waste.

General

U.S. EPA Waste Wise program – Federal program providing assistance for businesses, governments and nonprofits in solid waste reduction and disposal.

NJ Department of Environmental Protection Read the full story

Do you have mixed feelings about recycling?

You’re not alone.

Recycling saves energy and resources, and helps reduce the amount of material going into our already-overflowing landfills.  And, in New Jersey at least, it’s the law.  But that doesn’t make it easy.  Like every industry, recycling has its challenges. Read the full story

Are you interested in implementing some quick sustainability practices at your office and not sure where to begin? One way to get started fairly easily is to create a green purchasing program. First make a list of all the products you purchase and think about how you can begin procuring sustainable items. Following are some ideas to get you started. Read the full story

Recycling – whose business is it? Government, industry, households, schools all can play crucial role in keeping our communities clean through recycling. Recycling is a good example of successful green practice. Recovering and reusing materials result in substantial environmental benefits. If managed well, the benefits of recycling can outweigh its cost.

The following are some examples of how businesses in America have successfully recycled and reused waste. At the same time many have created an additional stream of revenue through recycling.

• The aerospace company, The Boeing Co., made $60 million last year through recycling. This included selling scrap metal and hawking used drill bits, safety glasses, wood containers and other excess goods at its six surplus stores in three states.
• How much money could you possibly save by reducing paper waste? Aid Association for Lutherans saves $30,000 per year. How? By simply reducing the use of paper in cafeteria with reusable & washable ceramic plates & coffee cups, composting yard waste and sending cafeteria grease & cooking oils to rendering firms.
• A change in lifestyle at a manufacturing firm, Placon Corporation, saved $120,000 per year. This came at a cost of $124,500 spent on innovative product design that uses less materials and absolute minimum amount of plastic, wider assortment of rolls of plastic, 30%-100% recycling plastic usage in its products, etc.
• Cooper Wiring Devices, an electric manufacturing company, generates $5000 per year in revenue by selling pallets to a recycling company. It also generated additional savings by using mulch made from breaking & chipping pallets. Also, it avoids disposal costs of approximately $12,250 per year on corrugated cardboard. It achieves this saving by flattening and consolidating approximately 50 tons of corrugated cardboard for recycling every year.
• Beer brewer & distributor, Brooklyn Brewery, saves more than $25,000 per year by recycling corrugated cardboard and stretch film plastic.
• By selling rubber foam to a recycler for $0.02 per pound, Premier Brands of America – a foot & shoe-care products manufacturer – in New York, saves $1200 in disposal costs and earns more than $4000 in revenue every year.
• Schumacher Electric Corporation saves $$ on corrugated material purchase and waste. It manufactures corrugated packaging from the incoming cartons and saves $60,000 per year. In this process it also reduces production of up to 70% of the baled corrugated for recycling.
• Ferodo America, a brake blocks manufacturer, reuses – rejects, dust and flyaways – and reaps financial benefits. By investing $475,000 in a recycling system, Ferodo is able to reuse materials like rejected brakes, dust & flyaways. This recycling saves Ferodo $950,000 per year on raw materials and eliminates 1,150 tons of waste.
• American Electric Power Company made a new stream of income by selling ash required for the production of cement. In 1992, it generated $755,000 from ash sales and avoided $1,910,000 in landfill costs. About 95% of fly ash produced at its Rockport plant was used for paving highways, runway expansion and other construction projects.
• A paperless office – does it make sense? Not literally no paper but with minimal paper use Millipore Corporation expects to reduce costs of purchasing office paper through the use of paperless technologies. Electronic version of its quarterly financial reports alone could save $25,000 per year eliminating 60,000 printed copies. Some of its programs for reducing use of paper include email for communication, electronic document control system, online catalog, and double-sided copying.

It can be deduced from the above stories that recycling is a highly effective strategy for reducing waste. Existed technologies can be used to maximize economic, environmental and societal benefits of recycling.

Useful Links

• State Recycling Tax Incentives
• Office paper reduction quick tips
• Waste Prevention tips
• Here are some ways to cut down on the amount of wooden pallets and crates entering the waste stream: Wooden Pallets and Crates
• Economic Benefits of Recycling
• Recycling calculator
• Waste Calculator

Most of us recycle at home in one form or another but recycling in the office is another story. Many small businesses are not set up to recycle. It takes time and effort to arrange a recycling program but there are numerous benefits. Recycling helps companies save money by reducing garbage service pick-up, reduce’s the organizations carbon foot-print, and helps improve employee morale. These days it feels good to do the right thing for the environment and the staff will most likely be excited about participating in this worthwhile effort.

Here are some tips for launching a recycling program in your office.

Step 1: Enlist Buy-In from Management.

The first step is to assign a ‘recycling coordinator’ who is committed and interested in spearheading the recycling program in your office. The recycling coordinator needs to enlist management’s support before pursuing the program. Management’s buy-in is key to the success of the program. Once management signs off on the program, the coordinator should enlist volunteers to form a ‘Green Team.’ Send out a memo to the company announcing the program. Explain the benefits of recycling: saves the company money by decreasing garbage service pick-up, helps reduce the company’s carbon foot-print, and helps improve employee morale. Inspire employees to participate by assigning awards for those who embrace the new program, such as for those employees who initiate the process. Get creative about ways you can make it fun for the staff!

Step 2: Determine what items to recycle.

Take a walk through the facility and look at what recyclable materials are being thrown in the garbage. The most common items are paper, cardboard, plastic, cans and bottles. Keep in mind that packing material, toners, electronics and office equipment are potentially recyclable. Initially target your recycling program to include the largest volumes of waste being thrown in the garbage. If you work in an office, typically your largest amount of garbage will be from paper so start there. Once your recycling program is up and running, begin recycling other waste in your office such as cans and bottles. Continue to build on your successes as you progress.

Step 3: Hire a recycling company to pick-up materials.

Once you have decided which materials to recycle, ask your garbage company if they will pick-up and recycle these items. There are also independent recycling companies you can hire. Visit www.recyclestuff.org for a listing of recycling companies or call the Recycle Hotline at 1-800-533-8414.

Step 4: Determine where to place recycling bins.

Recycling bins should be located next to where the materials are generated, such as next to copiers and printers, and in work stations and near break rooms.

Recycling bins should be properly labeled and should be placed next to all waste baskets in your facility.

Step 5: Create a plan for collecting recyclables for pick-up.

Decide how waste will be moved out of the facility for pick-up by the garbage or recycling company. Communicate your plan with your cleaning staff as their support is integral to the success of your program. Explain to your cleaning crew that the implementation of a recycling program will most likely reduce the amount of garbage generated in your facility and thus will lighten their workload.

Here are some ideas used by other companies for collecting the recyclables in your facility. Discuss these with your cleaning staff and decide which works best for your facility and which adheres to any service contracts.

1) Employees are responsible to empty their individual recycling bins into a centralized bin (one centralized bin for every 10-15 employees). The cleaning service is then responsible for only collecting the recyclables from the centralized recycling bin in addition to emptying the regular garbage.

2) The cleaning staff empties both the recycling bin and the garbage can from each workstation according to their typical cleaning schedule.

3) Employees are responsible to empty both their individual recycling bins and their waste baskets into larger centralized bins. The cleaning staff is only responsible to empty these larger bins.

4) The cleaning staff collects recycling from each workstation and employees empty their regular waste bins into centralized bins. The cleaning staff only empties these larger bins.

Step 6: Educate Staff.

Share your new program with everyone at your company. Train them in each step of the process. Set-up a recycling training session and have every employee physically walk through the recycling process. Implement the recycling training into your new hire orientation program. Include your cleaning crew in the program. Create enthusiasm for the program by distributing awards for those who contribute the most and for those who initiate new ideas. Consistently send emails to the staff about the program and acknowledge employees who make great efforts. Continually ask for their ideas to improve the program.

Step 7: Follow-up and Measure Results.

Announce positive results about the program through emails and company newsletters. Continually monitor the progress of the program. Staying on track of the program will help you make necessary adjustments for improvement and maintain buy-in from management and staff. Measure your program’s success by asking for volume reports or tonnage from your recycling companies or garbage service. Quantify the results by announcing the amount of resources saved, pollution prevented or money saved for the company. Important stat: for every ton of paper your company recycles, 17 trees are saved! Think about announcing the number of trees your company has saved over time – such as every 6 months or on an annual basis as a way to measure and acknowledge success.

Step 8: Encourage the creation of other Waste Reduction Programs.

Once the recycling program is running smoothly, encourage the staff to reduce waste in other ways. Ask the Green Team to implement a waste reduction program. There are a myriad of ways to save energy and reduce waste beyond recycling. Re-using materials, purchasing green office supplies, installing motion sensors, connecting your electronics to a power strip, printing documents on both sides, are just a few ideas. Much the same way you launched a recycling program, do the same with a waste reduction program by making it fun and creative and participatory for the staff. Remember to continually update your staff on the programs’ successes and create innovative ways to reward your staff and encourage continual enthusiasm. Once you have a few green programs under way, maybe you will want to create a Green Olympics where staff competes against each other in terms of who can conserve the most energy and save the most money for the company! Have fun and good luck!

How to lower waste disposal costs

The best way to cut waste disposal costs is to reduce the waste generated. A cost-efficient way is to reuse products in their present form. Materials that can’t be eliminated or reused can be recycled to reduce disposal costs. By diverting waste from garbage bins into recycling bins, businesses can reduce their garbage bin size and the frequency of collection. This could reduce garbage collection costs and associated fees on garbage. See this example how recycling saves money. So reduce, reuse and recycle products to lower your waste disposal costs.

A few ideas follow.

Step 1: Reduce, reuse, and recycle writing or printing paper.
A) Print on both sides of the paper.
B) Update your mailing list as regularly as possible.
C) Reuse manila envelopes.
C) Always use the second side of paper, either by printing on both sides or using the blank side as scrap paper. Use scrap paper to take notes instead of using notebooks, company pads, or message pads. Use scrap paper instead of stickies.
D) Instead of making individual copies, circulate memos, periodicals, and reports.
E) Review your document on the screen instead of printing a draft. If you must print a draft, use the blank back side of used paper.
F) Save documents on computer disk instead of making print copies.
G) Reduce all junk mail by 75% by registering for Mail Preferences Service on Direct Marketing Association website.
H) Avoid color printing. Color printing generally uses more ink, so print in black and white when you can.
I) When typing documents, especially drafts, use a smaller font and decrease the spacing between lines, or reformat to keep your document to as few pages as possible, especially when typing drafts.

Step 2: Reduce, reuse, and recycle Packaging and Shipping.
A) Use durable boxes instead of cardboard boxes for shipping to branch offices, stores and warehouses.
B) Reuse foam peanuts and cardboard boxes.
C) Return cardboard boxes and foam peanuts to distributors for reuse.
D) Reuse wooden pallets.
E) Order merchandise in bulk.
F) Request supplier to ship in returnable containers.

Step 3: Reduce, reuse, and recycle equipment.
A) Invest in waste reducing equipment such as copiers that print on both sides of the paper, dishwashing machine and durable dinnerware.
B) Recharge fax and printer cartridges.
C) Use rechargeable batteries.

Step 4: Reduce, reuse, and recycle landscaping waste.
A) Compost grass clippings and leaves.
B) Use compost as manure for your landscape.

Step 5: Reduce, reuse, and recycle personal waste.
A) Use cloth towels, tablecloths and napkins instead of paper products.
B) Use durable dishes, cups and glasses instead of disposable products.
C) Bringing lunch to work in reusable containers is likely the greenest (and healthiest) way to eat at work. But if you do order delivery, join coworkers in placing a large order (more efficient than many separate ones).
D) Use cloth roll towels in restrooms for wiping hands.