Reduce / Reuse / Recycle

Installing solar panels, combining your errands, buying food from local sources are all ways to be green around your home. But look around your workplace, where you spend 40-some hours each week. What can you do to make your company a little more planet-friendly?

Reduce

A typical worker uses more than 10,000 sheets of paper per year – that’s more than 20 boxes per person. Reduce your paper consumption by printing smart.

For example:

• Do you really need a hard copy? Save a digital copy of your documents to your computer rather than printing everything out.
• Print double-sided.
• Say no to color. Use grayscale printing to save on color ink.

Reuse

Each day, an average person creates more than four pounds of trash. Reduce the amount of trash by looking for ways to reuse.

• Invest in reusable dishware and utensils. Bring your own coffee mug to work, and if you bring your lunch to work, tote it in a lunch box and eat with reusable utensils.
• One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Before buying new office supplies or tossing unwanted items, consider holding an office supply trading post. Have your coworkers put their unneeded supplies in a central location. Someone else may be throwing out something you need.

Recycle

Encourage your office to recycle paper, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It may take repeated encouragement and befriending someone in the facilities department, but it will be worth the effort.

Recyclable paper products include:

• All white paper
• All colored paper
• All envelopes
• Computer printout paper
• Fax paper
• Junk mail
• Magazines and catalogs
• Newspapers
• File folders
• Brochures and pamphlets
• Newsletters
• Phone books

Include signs on your recycle bins for people not to place glass, plastic, metal, carbon paper, rubber, tissues, napkins or anything that touches food or drink in the recycling barrels. Placing these items in the recycling barrels will contaminate the contents and make them unsuitable for recycling.