Recycling tips for business

• Think of places in your business where you can use recycled content items, such as janitorial supplies (paper towels and toilet paper), office supplies (toner cartridges and paper), cafeterias (napkins).

• Make a goal to add at least one product that contains recycled content per year. To find recycled content products, visit NERC's Green Purchasing Resources for Businesses.

• Offer incentives to your suppliers that will earn them more of your business if they offer you recycled content products. This will lower the cost of those products and increase the amount available to purchase!

• Recycle your printing equipment with Xerox Green World Alliance, a valuable recycling program that minimizes environmental impacts of printer supplies and provides options to throwing away empty containers. Its alternatives for used supplies include print cartridge reprocessing, waste toner reuse, plastics and metals recovery and turning waste into energy.

See also Recycle printer cartridges.

• Install recycling containers to make it easy for your employees to participate. Don't forget other materials such as cans and bottles, your employees will be bringing items from home, such as beverage cans which will be thrown out if there is no place to recycle them.

• Track and publicly post how much recycling is done in your building. This will increase awareness among your employees.

• Make office policy to have reports produced electronically to save paper. Have all employee training manuals available online.

• If you sell a product, see if you can design it to use less material, or eliminate excess packaging.

• Reuse material whenever possible. Save boxes to reuse for shipping, reuse file folders.

• Install hand dryers in employee restrooms. While saving on paper, this is also more sanitary than using paper towels.

• In your cafeteria, use real silverware, cups and plates instead of disposable ones.

• Save all packing peanuts from incoming shipments. Even if you don't ship out using them, most shipping outlets will gladly accept them from you.

• Donate any unused or obsolete office supplies to local non profit organizations at green-works.

• Recycling doesn't have to just be at home. Even if you aren't a business owner, speak with management about instituting a recycling program where you work. Spearhead a committee to get it started. Once it becomes easy for people to participate, recycling will become a habit.

• If you are a business Poly C. Reclaimers will collect your old CD's and DVD's free of charge and plastic waste.

Advice: send your old CDs and DVDs to Cd's for Good Causes they will donate 50p per CD & DVD to a charity of your choice. (However they cannot accept the free CDs and DVDs that come free with magazines and newspapers or computer data disks)