Starting a Sustainability Program?
Keep These Tips in Mind When Buying Recycling Bins

As an environmentally conscious business-owner, you want to be able to reduce your business’ environmental impact as much as possible. Sometimes, this can seem like an uphill battle. It is not a fight you should give up, though. Recycling in the workplace has the potential to make huge differences, you should be careful to make sure that the projects you want to pursue are of a realistic and realizable scope. After all, over-ambitious projects are the largest barrier to small business sustainability.

If you’re looking for simple ideas to start with to make sure your business can become more sustainable, try starting with a paper recycling program. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind before you purchase your paper recycling bins:

Avoid Shredding Where Possible

Office paper is among the most valuable recyclable materials – unshredded. When paper is shredded, the length of the paper fibers are reduced, reducing the amount of products that it can effectively be used in. Because of this, the value of the recycled paper is reduced, and some recycling programs might not accept shredded paper at all. If there are only a few lines of sensitive material in a document, marking over it in ink or white-out can remove the sensitive material without affecting the recyclability of the paper. For more sensitive documents, some local community gardens or nature centers are happy to accept shredded paper for use in compost – be sure to ask if your file shredding company offers these services.

Research Your Markets

Recycled paper is valuable, whole or shredded, and finding the right companies in your area to take these (and your other recyclables) is important. By running a waste stream assessment at the start of your recycling program, you can discover which recyclable material your business produces the most of – and with that information, focus on recycling options that will make the most of those materials.

Organize and Publicize Collection

Just buying recycling bins and sending out a single memo isn’t enough – employee apathy and confusion are also among the most cited reasons for sustainability project falling short of their goals. Be sure that your staff knows about the program, how to properly recycle and/or destroy paper, and where to recycle. Make sure instructions are easily accessible and readable near recycling stations, and that recycling stations are conveniently placed. There’s nothing worse than a well-planned program that fails to get off the ground.