Whether you work in a restaurant, office, or retail shop, there are many ways you can recycle your waste rather than sending it to landfill. Setting up effective recycling systems helps businesses save significantly on their waste bills while helping the environment and meeting corporate responsibilities.
The Actsmart Business program provides free assistance and tailored advice to help you set up your recycling systems. Once systems have been set up, we provide staff education, signage and recognition as an Actsmart business.
Five quick steps you can take to start setting up recycling at work:
1. Know your waste: Assessing what waste you are currently producing is essential to work out the most cost-effective way to recycle your waste. It costs significantly less to get a wheelie bin of paper or mixed recycling collected than sending it to land fill, so recycling will save your business money.
2. Reduce the amount of waste coming into your business: Buying in bulk reduces packaging. You can also request that items are shipped in returnable containers, encourage staff to take their own cup to coffee shops, communicate electronically to minimise paper use, and provide options to reuse items in the workplace rather than discard them.
3. Consider organics: A large percentage of commercial waste consists of food scraps and compostable waste. Commercial worm farmers will provide bins for your workplace and regularly collect them for their worm farms. Organics include hair from hairdressers and coffee grounds from caf s. Worm farms reduce the amount of methane produced at landfill from decomposing matter, and convert organic waste into useful products like fertilisers and soil conditioners.
4. Education is the key to success: Getting your staff interested in recycling is one of the most important aspects of improving your recycling. Actsmart can provide a free on-site, engaging information session for your staff, and provide stickers and signage to make sure staff know exactly what can go in each bin. Consider rewarding individual employees for ‘contaminant-free’ recyclables/organics.
5. Regularly review your collection services: You will be paying for collections whether your bins are full or empty, so make sure you regularly check your bins before collection to ensure they are full before being emptied.
Actsmart provides assistance, including promotion of your business to the wider Canberra community. Find out how at www.actsmart.act.gov.au
For more information contact Actsmart on
Phone: 13 22 81 or Email: [email protected]
www.actsmart.act.gov.au
Level 2 North, Dame Pattie Menzies House,
16 Challis Street Dickson ACT 2602
