Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Office Recycling – Using Desktop Recycling Containers
The office is one place that uses an incredible amount of recyclable material but often times has no program or set up to recycle. The average office can use between 5-10 cases of paper every week that's 5000, to 10000 sheets of paper. Factor in the bad copies the paperwork that is being trashed, the notes, memos and other flyers that normally end up the trash and an office may be throwing out between 2500 and 5000 sheets of paper in various forms throughout a week.

Just about anything that is paper can be recycled, forms that were filled out incorrectly and trashed, envelopes from mailings, post it notes, and the notepad paper used to doodle and scribble quick notes on. Even phone message paper can be recycled. This makes it a worth while endeavor to get a recycling program or campaign going for your office.

One of the best ways is to provide a Deskslider recycling bin under everyone's desk. This bin can literally be just one of the stackable plastic trays that can just be added to the already present stack. They only cost a couple of dollars if you purchase them new and most offices have some in the supply room that are not being used. Then individuals just place their recyclable material in these trays. It can either be collected at the end of the day or each individual can take the contents of their desktop recycling containers to a larger bin.

It is usually a good idea to place a bin in a central location such as the copy room or next to the copiers. This will encourage people to place paper into the recycling bins and provide a location for people to dump the recycling trays. Depending on the set up you want to create you can even have someone collect the bins each day, empty them in then place them in the central location having individuals pick up the bins on their way into work at the beginning of the day.

The important thing is to make the desktop recycling container something that people are going to want to use and that will not inconvenience their work space. People are more likely to use something that does not create a disturbance for them then something they are constantly bumping into because of its location.

If this type of desktop system does not work for your office set up you can consider alternatives to the desktop recycling bin in the form of small wastebaskets or containers that can be placed on the floor to be used for recycling paper. These can usually be placed to regular wastebaskets and depending on the office space usually do not create the type of disturbance that a desktop recycling container might in smaller quarters.

There are a number of ways to get people involved in office recycling. Using a desktop recycling container is just one of the many ways that offices can get into the recycling and conservation effort without incurring a huge expense or having to go out of their way to make things happen. It is often as easy as using materials that are already sitting in the office as containers for recycling and just encouraging people by providing them with a conveniently placed bin for paper.

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