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Green Initiatives: Ways to Reduce Waste at Work

Do you encounter challenges in trying to keep your workplace waste-free, especially those high profile environments like the office? Well, with the rising risks of global warming, it is necessary to keep our environment tidy all the time. Reducing waste in a workplace can be tough, but with a little adjustment to your daily routine, you can find easy ways to reduce waste at work. You can reduce waste at your workplace by applying the following tips:

1. Paper and Printing Products

Most offices depend on large quantities of papers to run their daily activities, which results in increased wastes in the workplace. The following tips can be embraced to reduce the amount of paper and printing products at your workplace;

Use both sides of the paper: When printing, you can set your printer to use both sides of the paper as this will cut paper usage by half.
Shred and reuse unwanted paper: Instead of disposing of those old papers, you can reduce them to small pieces and reuse them.
Offer paper recycling: Provide your employees with a paper recycling receptacle to put the unwanted papers. You can make arrangements with one person to deliver your paper to the recycling centre every week.
Avoid colour printing: Using low-ink in the documents helps in conserving more ink. Avoid colour printing as it uses more ink, which can lead to increased wastes at your workplace.

2. Equipment

Consider the following tips when purchasing office equipment to reduce landfill waste:

Recycle your e-waste: Instead of disposing of your old cell phones, computers, printers, and other equipment in your office, you can consider recycling them. Research on recycling providers who handle these kinds of materials.
Buy high-quality equipment: When purchasing your office equipment, consider the durability of the equipment as this will reduce their chances of becoming obsolete. Durable equipment will help you avoid buying new equipment, thus reducing manufacturing waste.
Unplug equipment when not in use: Train your employees to unplug equipment like copiers, printers and other equipment when not in use.
Buy used copiers and faxes: When you buy equipment like copiers and faxes instead of manufacturing, you can help in reducing waste. This is because the production of this equipment creates more waste at your workplace. However, ensure the equipment is still efficient before buying them.
Ferrous or non-ferrous metals can be recycled, but invest in non-ferrous metals in electronics or other industrial equipment as opposed to ferrous metals as they are highly recyclable.

3. Miscellaneous

Do not ignore the little activities that happen at your workplace because they can amount to office waste. To reduce consumption at your workplace, consider the following tips:

Do the dishes: Encourage your employees to use the reusable dishes and glasses for their meals.
Provide filtered water: Avoid providing your employees with bottled water because the bottles end up as wastes. Instead, give them filtered drinking water and encourage them to use reusable glasses.
Use simple cleaning supplies: Commercial products used for cleaning purposes produces a lot of waste. You can discuss with your maintenance crew to use simple products like vinegar and baking soda that have less waste.
Buy sugar and cream dispensers: Avoid sugar packed in paper packets as they contribute significantly in office waste. Instead, you can consider investing in large dispensers for sugar and cream storage.

What About the Waste Management?

Waste management involves three processes, which include; collection, transportation, and recycling of wastes. The processes involved in waste management aims at ensuring that there is a proper way of handling waste products. The main goal of waste management is to avoid the harmful effects of waste on human health and the environment.

There are different ways of waste management which include the following;

1. Dumping Methods

This method involves burying of wastes in a deep pit which is dug far from the residential areas. As an individual, you can embrace the dumping process to manage your waste.

2. Recycling Method

Recycling is the best waste management method as it is environmentally friendly. In recycling, unused products are recycled instead of throwing them away to form other useful products. However, there are complex products which are hard to recycle. Such products are passed through the process of biological reprocessing, which is the method used for organic materials. So, what we can do with waste things? The recycle used materials are decomposed for agricultural purposes.

3. Collection and Transportation

Collection and transportation is an easy way to reduce waste. The process involves the use of waste disposal bins for more accessible collection and transportation of waste.

4. Creation of Awareness

Waste management requires sustainable knowledge and education to all people, as this will ensure people’s security and global health. Training entails the introduction of reverse vending machines, which helps in lowering the cost incurred in waste management. These machines should be placed in supermarkets and all public institutions.

Corporate teams can book team building activities to promote awareness within their team, while also contributing to the cause. For instance, this recycling experience teaches participants about the value of canning, composting, and more — all while taking part in the action.

Maintaining an intact environment at your workplace is possible when you embrace all ways that help in reducing waste at your workplace. Reducing waste helps in the reduction of the effects of global warming and other hazards causing harm to humankind.