5 things you can do to reduce waste at work
Do you want to limit your environmental footprint and that of your company? Here are 5 things you can do to reduce your waste at the office. These tips are intended as much for employees who want to carry this approach in their company as for structures that want to favor zero waste.
1- Opt for reusable products
During coffee breaks and meetings, we overconsume disposable products: plastic cups, coffee and sugar pods, stirrers, etc. The goal is to replace these products with equivalent reusable items such as mugs, sugar bowls and spoons.
Choose ground or bean-to-cup coffee machines over capsule machines. They are more economical and environmentally friendly, which is advantageous for the planet and for the user in terms of price.
When it comes to office supplies, go for refillable and durable permanent items such as refillable pens, ink cartridges, wooden pencils.
2- Maximize the lifespan of your equipment
In order to reduce your energy consumption, you need to adopt certain reflexes to make better use of your electronic equipment. First, you can change your devices' default settings , such as brightness or power management. Remember to put the device to sleep and turn it off as soon as you are no longer using it.
When your equipment no longer works, consider turning to repair companies. And if you need to buy new equipment, consider buying the second-hand market.
3- Install a composter
If your premises include a restaurant or a simple canteen, you can install a composter to recycle your food waste. To do this, all you have to do is install bins outside where you will place your organic waste. You can also use your compost to grow your houseplants.
If the company does not have an outdoor space, you can use a service provider who will collect the bio-waste in order to compost it. It is also possible to use a vermicomposter indoors. To do this, you can call on a master composter who will train employees to be responsible for its operation.
4- Install specific recycling terminals
You can reduce your waste in the company by installing recycling stations specific to certain types of waste. Cigarette butts, batteries, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes are waste that must be treated with care. A collection system must be considered in order to send them to the right channel. In this way, they can be processed and recycled as raw material. Employees will simply have to deposit their waste in these terminals, which will then be collected by service providers.
5- Choose your cleaning service provider
Once you have established good collection practices in your offices, you can train your cleaning provider on the zero waste approach you have put in place. In this way, they will have a clear idea of the missions entrusted to them (bio-waste management, washing reusable products, emptying bins, etc.) and will avoid sorting errors.
You can also opt for household service providers who use eco-friendly cleaning products that are notpolluted with the chemical additives of conventional products. In addition, your provider can use reusable cleaning tools such as cloths instead of single-use wipes.
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