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Go green at work; reduce, reuse and recycle in the office - these are just a couple of taglines that you will see online when you search for ways to recycle at the office. In today's world where the environmental challenges that we are facing are getting more and more serious, it is a must for everyone to do their part in helping reduce global warming.

Naturally, it's best to start these environment-saving practices right in the comfort of your own home - but why stop there? Most individuals who have a nine-to-five job spend one-third of their days in the office.

So turning off the lights on your workstation may sound like a minor thing that you can do - but all the energy that you can save will work wonders in reducing global warming because you spend so much of your time in the office anyway.

Enumerating the Top 10 Ways to do Some Recycling in the Workplace

So what are the top ten ways that you can do if you want to go green and do some recycling in the workplace? Here's a list of the things that you can do to contribute in helping save the environment:

•  Purchase recycled paper and use both sides for printing. 
  

Those who cannot live by the term 'paperless office' yet can still do their part in saving the environment. Sure, you can always rely on databases, your laptop computer or that reliable projector screen when viewing reports, but there are just times when you cannot do without a printed copy of whatever it is that you're working on.

So it's important to make sure that you are only buying recycled paper and both sides are being used when printing. This way, you can save on trees, gallons of water and landfill space.

•  Make sure that there is a recycling bin which is easily accessible to workers.
  

Sometimes, all it needs is a 'nudge' for your employees to go green. Once they see appropriately labeled bins where they can place recyclable items like paper, plastic and metal - trash will be easily segregated and you can easily live by the rule use, reuse and recycle.

• Recycle old newspapers.
  

If you're not keen on visiting NYTimes.com in your workstation and you're still reading a physical newspaper, make sure to leave it for somebody else to read when you're done. At the end of the day, put it out for somebody to recycle.

• Stop drinking coffee on Styrofoam or paper cups!
  

If you cannot bear going through your morning routine without a shot of caffeine, make sure to always bring your traveling mug with you. Did you know that it literally takes one million years for Styrofoam to biodegrade? Environmentalists are already shuddering at the thought - so go ahead and buy that traveling mug to help reduce needless waste.

• Purchase rewritable disks. 
  

Whether it's a CD or DVD presentation that you're working on, it definitely helps to purchase rewritable disks instead of going for those almost disposable kinds. Better yet, go for an 8GB flash drive where you can store hundreds of thousands of pages of reports!

• Go environment-friendly on those ink and toner cartridges. 
  

Make sure to always recycle your empty ink and toner cartridges, and purchase the remanufactured cartridges.

• Purchase rechargeable batteries.
  

Not only will these nifty gadgets save up on your company resources, but you will also turn your office into something that's green and environment-friendly.

• Reuse those envelopes. 
  

If your company is sending out a considerable amount of mail on a daily basis, make sure to reuse the envelopes. What you can do is stick on a label to cover the old address used on the old envelopes.

If you're worried that it will tarnish your corporate image, print a discrete message at the bottom saying that this envelop was reused to save trees.

•  Send your waste to be recycled and purchase products from recycled content. 
  

You cannot be considered as a 100% green office if you are sending your waste to be recycled but you are not purchasing new supplies which are recycled content.

•  'Recycle' energy.
  

Aside from using, reusing and recycling your office supplies, make sure that your office is also not contributing to energy wastage by making sure that you're saving on energy. Turn off the lights and power strips after a long day at the office; make sure that you're using energy-efficient appliances and office equipment and setup an office carpool to save on gas.

With these 10 easy ways to recycle at the office, you can have an environmentally-friendly operation in the workplace that each and every employee will be proud of.

 

 

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