How to Sustainably Manage Waste Disposal at Your Business

As you might expect, the biggest waste categories for many businesses are paper and ink. Cutting down on the amount you use is a good place to start your reduction efforts.

• Go paperless: Eliminate the use of paper wherever you can. Keep policy and procedural documents and anything else that is used company-wide either online or on a shared server.
• Cut down on printing: Only print what is absolutely necessary. When you need a hard copy, print double-sided and decrease the margins to reduce the number of sheets used over time.
• Cut down on ink: Print in “draft mode” to cut your ink consumption. Stick to printing in black and white only, because color printing tends to use a greater volume and wider spectrum of ink.
• Use paper alternatives: In the bathroom, switch to hand dryers to eliminate paper towels.

Is there anything used regularly by your employees that can be replaced with a reusable option? The easiest way to do this is with food- and drink-related items.

Sustainable Solutions for Your Office Kitchen:

• Replace disposable cups with coffee mugs and reusable water bottles.
• Encourage employees to bring lunch in Tupperware.
• Provide compostable utensils to avoid using plasticware.

A great alternative to throwing extra items in the trash is to donate them. Not only will the donations benefit those who receive them, but you might also benefit in the form of compensation like tax incentives.

• Restaurants hotels and grocery stores often donate leftover perishable and prepared food to shelters and food banks.
• Hotels can donate soaps, shampoos, skin care products and toiletries kept on hand.
• If your office is updating its hardware, donate old computers, printers and other electronics.
• Donate old furniture cleared out during an office renovation and cleanouts often provide a business with the opportunity to buy new furniture.
• Consider donating desks and chairs to a local school.

Recycling saves energy, keeps materials out of landfills and incinerators, and provides raw materials for creating new products. This conserves and extends the use of these resources for as long as possible. Use designated bins for recyclables like paper, plastic and glass to give employees an alternative to the trash can.

This is also a good chance to think outside the box. There are ways to recycle many of the products your business makes or uses every day, even if they can’t go in your regular bin.

Green Disposal Options for Business-Specific Waste:

• Want to recycle hotel key cards or gift cards? Check for local facilities that can repurpose them, like EarthWorks Systems in Northeast Ohio.
• Restaurants can send their wine corks to ReCORK, an organization that grinds them down and repurposes them for other uses.
• Makeup studios, salons and other beauty businesses can take empty or used makeup containers to brands like Lush, Garnier and MAC to be recycled.