Minimising the amount of waste a business produces is not just beneficial for the environment. Europe has set strict targets to reduce amounts of waste sent to landfill. The government is using landfill tax as the main mechanism for driving the change of thinking in the UK away from landfill. As a result the costs of disposal are rising at an extraordinary rate and will continue to do so indefinitely.

A study by Envirowise estimates that waste typically costs companies 4.5% of  turnover. This means that all businesses have an opportunity for large savings on overheads through fairly simple measures. The 3 r's (reduce, reuse and recycle) are still the focus of all successful waste minimisation initiatives.

Recycling Your Waste

The next vital step once you have minimised your waste is to ensure that as much as possible of the remaining waste is recycled. The majority of the materials a business produces especially in the office can be recycled. In order to ensure a recycling system is effective it must be simple and easy for staff to use.

º Contact your waste contractor and ask for an audit to assess how much of the waste can be recycled.

º Place recycle points near workstations and ensure that everyone is clear which paper products are recyclable.

º White paper is of a higher grade and so in higher demand and has a higher value.
º Recycle furniture - send for refurbishment or to another charity.

º Printer and photocopier ink and toner cartridges can be recycled and reused.
º Recycle your electrical equipment including printers, photocopiers and fax machines, computers, mobile phones, batteries and fluorescent tubes. Recycle printer cartridges and other office consumables.

º Recycle office waste such as drinks cans, plastic cups and fluorescent tubes.

º Investigate the opportunities to compost waste food.

Reducing Office Waste

º When printing use both sides of paper. Make sure the Duplex function is used on photocopiers and printers. Only print when necessary and use small font sizes, when acceptable.

º Use computer e-mail rather than sending messages on paper, particularly for internal business memos.

º Don't print out emails unless vital.

º Edit documents on-screen rather than printing unnecessary draft copies.

º Retain documents on your computer rather than in hard copy. This not only saves paper, saves on-file storage space and keeps them at your fingertips. Just make sure you do a back up!

º Set computers to toner save mode.

º Stop incoming junk mail by contacting the free Mailing Preference Service

º Reduce the use of staples in the office. It has been calculated that if everyone in UK offices saved one staple a day that would be 72 tonnes of metal saved a year.

º Use refillable pens rather than disposable and also use pens made from recyclable plastic.

º Try and avoid buying pre-packed sandwiches. Bring your lunch from home or from a company that does not over package their sandwiches.

º Use your own cup, glass or cutlery rather than plastic or polystyrene cups.
Reducing Waste Sent To Customers. Suppliers have a responsibility to ensure that the products they send to their customers contain as little waste as possible. This is once again not only beneficial for the environment but will help reduce costs.

º Review mailing lists to ensure they are accurate and appropriate.

º Use the smallest font size practicable and designs that use less paper.

º Examine the packaging you are using to send to your customers. You may be able to reduce this instantly saving you and your customer money.

º Ensure that as much of the material you use is recyclable at the other end.

º Offer to take back products to be re-used where possible.

Reusing Your Waste

Increasing the life of all of the products we use is a key factor in reducing our environmental impact. A report by the New Economics Foundation showed that for one tonne of waste at the consumer end of the manufactured article, there are 5 tonnes at the manufacturing stage and 20 tonnes at the site of the initial resource extraction.

º Make your own paper pads from scrap paper and when printing draft copies use scrap paper.

º Paper which is unsuited for recycling can be shredded and used for packaging.

º Reuse envelopes by using address labels.

º  Padded postage bags can be re-used.

º Polystyrene beads can be collected up and saved for re-use.

º Save plastic carrier bags and boxes in a central place for reuse.

º Use plastic bags as bin liners.

º Reuse stationary such as folders, dividers, and plastic sleeves.

º Try to repair or refurbish equipment before having it replaced.

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