Recycling at Work: Getting Cash for Trash
By Erin Douglass
The next moneysaver at your company may be lurking in the trash.
Whether it's corrugated cardboard, soda cans or sludge, more and more of your company's waste can be recycled in these 21st Century times. And it doesn't take a degree in bioengineering or a team of treehuggers to get started. Armed with good information, a bit of resolve and support from the troops, you can bring your company to a greener place—and save money, too—whether you establish a complete recycling program or focus on reducing and reusing what's already on hand.
Revving Up Recycling
Although estimates vary, experts say over half of a city's waste stream can be traced to the commercial sector. Yet wiser ways to purge waste rarely come up on company agendas. As Pamela Gordon, president of Technology Forecasters, Inc., a management consulting firm in Alameda, California, and author of Lean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment (Berrett-Koehler: 2001) says: "You've got to talk about cost savings. More people are motivated to save money these days than to take environmental steps."
And recycling can truly save money. According to Bruce Buchan, president of Midpoint International, Inc., a Toronto-based company that specializes in recycling programs and products, companies can reap a savings of $60 to $70 per year per person when they implement—and aggressively support—recycling programs.
Take these steps to start or rejuvenate a recycling program in your workplace.
Pick a leader. One of the biggest problems companies face when jumpstarting a program is lack of leadership. Says Buchan: "Someone has to bite the bullet and appoint a coordinator." Otherwise, programs risk dying on the vine. Be prepared for the likely outcome of most leadership hunts: HR personnel placed at the recycling helm.
Snag support. Recycling programs live and die by their supporters. "If you don't have senior management buy in, you can kiss your program goodbye," says Buchan. In addition to showing the impact on the company coffers, be prepared to show management why a program makes sense and what you need to get started. A workplace consultant can help with this numbercrunching and planning. Or you can tackle the work yourself, with ample help from your local phonebook or Internet access; many counties and organizations provide recycling hotlines or websites to help businesses get started.
A note of warning: Because demand, and therefore price, fluctuates wildly and often for some recyclables, it can be hard to determine how much a program will cost and how much it will save. Calls to local businesses of similar size and type may help you get a better sense of recycling's fiscal impact on your company.
Also critical in these early stages is the support and participation of the janitorial staff. According to Buchan, nothing can demoralize a workplace recycler more than staying late and watching the custodians throw the garbage and carefully segregated recyclables into the same bin. From the outset, meet with worksite janitors to discuss how the program will affect the custodial staff and get their feedback on the procedures to follow so that it's most apt to work.
Conduct a waste audit. One of the essential initial steps is to know what your company throws out. Otherwise, says Buchan, you won't have a means of comparison down the road to help gauge whether your efforts are working. One way to conduct the audit is to take and display a photograph of a department or worksite's trash before it gets hauled away, making sure to note its volume in concrete ways that employees can grock, such as numbers of trash bags.
Next, determine what makes up the bulk of your trash. Put on some gloves and poke through the trash in several departments or work areas. Ask employees to join in the investigation to raise their awareness—and remove suspicions that you may be snooping around for other reasons. Those trashed items that proliferate are likely your company's target recyclables.
One case in point is camera, film and digital image firm Polaroid Corporation. According to Pam Gordon, the company's Scotland-based manufacturing plant brought in a consultant several years ago to help reduce the company's waste. Their first step: spreading a cloth on the plant floor and dumping the contents of a garbage can out for all to see. In doing so, the company learned that cardboard was the single most plentiful item in its trash.
Rather than simply setting up a recycling program to deal with the surfeit, Polaroid went a step further asking 'How can we prevent cardboard from even entering the facility?' It found a producer of corrugated plastic boxes, which could be broken down and shipped back to suppliers—provided they were willing to participate. They were willing, particularly after hearing Polaroid's dollars and cents arguments. Says Gordon: "They figured maybe they'd use these new boxes 12 or 13 times. It turns out they can be reused hundreds of times." Even better, she says, once the boxes do wear out, they are completely recyclable.
Huddle with haulers. Contact local haulers to find out if they collect the materials you've targeted as most important to reduce. The Internet can often lead you to lists of haulers that serve your area and their prices and policies. And review your existing contracts with garbage haulers and custodial services. These are likely to be affected by any changes in what gets thrown where.
Assess your space.With the results of the waste audit in hand, plan where the recycling needs to take place in the workplace—and how recycled materials will be stored until pickup day. For companies short on elbowroom, this can be a challenge. Says Alan Nakashimi, a program specialist with LessIsMore.org, a recycling group overseen by Santa Barbara, California's Public Works Division: "Some smaller businesses barely have room enough for the trash bin. It makes it difficult for haulers to provide containers that will work."
In cramped cases, consider asking employees to collect their own recyclables and carry them to containers stored outside the building, a central location for multiple unit complexes such as a basement or wherever else there may be room.
Select equipment. It may sound frivolous, but the right containers can make a big difference to workplace recycling habits. Says Buchan: "If you're serious, go to the trouble to buy decent containers. People will respond and take pride in the program if the containers look like they're part of the building." Possibilities include large, clean, designated containers in common areas or individual bins under desks. The alternatives—beaten-up boxes, sticky old garbage cans—end up either shunned or filled with unsorted trash.
Be sure to label clearly all containers, too. "Otherwise, they'll becoming dumping zones," says Buchan.
Educate employees. Explaining the whats, whys and wherefores of your company's recycling plan is a key ingredient for worker participation. Says Gordon simply: "It takes training." But don't jam your program plans down employees' throats. "Frame your ideas in ways that fit your company's culture," she says. "And then implement changes in ways that have worked for your company before." For example, create informational materials that look and sound like documents handed out in the past and use gatherings already on the agenda—such as a weekly mass meeting—to cover the basics.
Adds Buchan: "Lots of people think you give employees a bin and that's it." Doing so, however, often makes for a shortlived program. To keep interest in recycling high, get creative: Give the program a catchy name, offer rewards to departments that produce the least garbage, celebrate America Recycles Day—this year on November 15—and put reminders in prominent spots such as near the soda machine or beside the copier.
The Other Two Rs
While there's certainly money to be saved—and made—once businesses start recycling, Pamela Gordon urges that there's even more savings to be gleaned from two other critical Rs in the fight against waste: reducing and reusing.
Reduce. Cutting back on the materials your business orders and uses is the first, best way to Go Green, according to many experts. Says Gordon: "Simply put: Don't buy products and materials that you don't need."
To this end, crack open company supply closets or storage areas and assess the contents. Note what is piled high and what's in short supply. Cut down on or eliminate those items that don't seem to be used and look for alternative products made of recycled materials for those items that employees do grab. Also, consider posting a message on the door of the supply area stressing the importance of working with less.
And whenever possible, choose electronic options over paper ones. E-mail, electronic memos and computer-based document routing are excellent alternatives to trips to the printer and copier. Says Gordon: "In this case, technology is the environment's friend."
Reuse. This second R is another often painless way to shrink company waste. "Reusing is the second best option for companies looking to cut back," says Gordon, "because you aren't buying resources twice."
Provide company mugs in lieu of paper or plastic cups, break down and resend cardboard boxes, use the backsides of paper. Adds Gordon: "If documents are confidential and can't be reused, choose a shredding company that recycles."