The beginning of the year is always a great time for discarding old habits and establishing new, healthier ones. Cultivating a holistic eco-friendly lifestyle can be both simple and rewarding. Most businesses and corporations are unaware of their collective impact on the environment. By simply making a few small adjustments to how you run your office, you can help the environment and live healthier.
Unfortunately the habit of recycling doesn’t come naturally to most people and you’ll need a bit of patience and perseverance when kick-starting your office recycling initiative. Here are a few tips on how to minimize C02 emissions through and “easy-peezy” office recycling initiative:
Keep It Simple: A simple recycling system will encourage your fellow-employees to take part in the office recycling initiative. Breaking an old habit is hard enough so keep your recycling system straightforward and accessible. It’s best to start small and expand you recycling system later. If you use a lot paper in your office you might want to start by recycling only paper at first. You can always incorporate more recyclables at a later stage. Paper is something that most offices use in excess and you can find interesting tips and paper depot details on the “Paper Recycling Association of South Africa” website.
Sort it: Keep your recyclable materials separate. If you’re not the sorting and ordering type, we suggest you pay a minimal fee to collectors who’ll do the sorting for you. Sorting can however be fun depending on how you present your recycling initiative to the rest of the office. The trick is to make office recycling effortless and logical.
Label it: Set up a few plastic bins in your office kitchen to distinguish between recyclables and non-recyclables. Label you bins clearly to avoid confusion.
Recyclables only: Make sure all your collectables can be processed. Read up on the recycling rules for your area and follow those guidelines as best you can.
Buy Recycled: By purchasing office furniture and products manufactured from recycled materials, you’ll be supporting a cyclical system of waste reduction.
Recycled Aesthetics: Many artists are able to transform waste into beautiful works of art. You can support local artist who’ve made this their trade. The Magpie team from Barrydale create beautiful art pieces and chandeliers form recycled products. Why not add a bit of local colour to your office by investing in recycled art?
Recycle Your Electronics: A variety of non-profit organisations will take computer parts and turn them into working computers for others. Find someone who’s interested in fixing used gadgets and electronics.
Know your products: Some materials require more energy to recycle and it’s good to know which products have a better recycling value. Some people argue that glass is heavier and requires more fuel and energy to transport and recycle whilst others are opposed to the harmful chemicals that some plastics emit during the recycling process. There are various sites out there discussing this topic and the best would be decide for yourself which products are worth avoiding in the future.
Know your local recycling depots: Partnering with a local recycling company is a simple way of ensuring that your recyclables are picked up on a weekly basis. There are various local recycling companies who’ll collect your office recyclables on a weekly basis for a small fee. Treevolution.co.za is a great site for finding a local recycling depot in your area.
An Eco-Friendly Marketing approach: Why not incorporate an eco-marketing campaign into your existing marketing campaign? Many businesses have launched a tree-planting initiative together with their existing marketing strategies. This way you can generate new business while replenishes our planet’s natural resources. Planting a tree for every new or existing client is a smart way of generating business in an eco-friendly manner. The Food and Trees for Africa Foundation enables businesses and individuals to sponsor trees on behalf of their clients or partners.
Start your year fresh with an eco-friendly home and office makeover. It’s much simpler than you might think and you have a network of resources and local depots at your disposal. You might even find yourself getting hooked on living Greener.
The liveeco team
