Think back a few years; is your business producing more waste now or less? If it’s less, that’s great – reducing the amount of garbage your workplace creates is excellent for the environment and will ensure your business has green credentials. However, if the answer is that you’re producing the same amount or perhaps more than you were before, then it’s time to think seriously about what you can do to fix this issue. The good news is, reducing your business’s waste is not expensive, and it’s not difficult, which means that no matter what kind of business you run or how you run it, reducing waste is entirely possible. Read on for some ideas on how you can do it so you can improve your green credentials and become a business for the 21st century and beyond. 

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Photo by Eva Elijas from Pexels

Recycling 

One of the simplest ways to reduce your waste is to recycle as much as you can. When you promote workplace recycling, you and your team can all work together to ensure that anything that you can recycle is recycled. Although you will still have some waste, it won’t be as much as it was before you started recycling, and you may even be able to save money. 

Remember, as a business, it costs to have your waste removed. The less waste you have to get rid of, the less it will cost. 

And recycling is not a difficult thing to do. If you can provide two sets of trash cans, one for general waste and one for recycled waste, and you put up posters letting people know what can be recycled, it will soon become a positive habit within the workplace, and your waste will be much less. 

Compost 

Depending on what kind of waste you have, you may be able to turn it into compost. Food waste is the ideal way to start a compost heap, and the most you add to it, the more it will break down. Of course, you’ll need some outside space to keep your composting, but if you can spare a small corner to place a compost barrel, then you can compost as much as possible. And although leftover food is the main component of compost, other things can go into the barrel too. In fact, some items will be labeled as compostable, so make it a workplace rule to read the labels on trash before you throw it out. 

Allow any of your workers to take as much of the finished product home as they want to for use in their yards, and you’ll encourage more and more people to get into the habit of composting, thus reducing your waste significantly. 

Reduce Your Packaging 

Packaging accounts for the majority of waste that any business (and any household) throws out. Think about all the rubbish you have to dispose of; you’ll soon see that most of it comes from the deliveries you receive. 

Therefore, one way to reduce your waste as a business is to think more carefully about your suppliers. Search around for a place that ensures it uses as little packaging as possible, or that offers only recyclable packaging, for example. 

The more people who take the time to do this, the bigger message the world will send to manufacturers who still insist on using too much packaging, which is just a waste. When people stop using them because of this, they will soon change the way they work.