Is your company interested to reduce waste and implement a recycling programme? Are you looking for tips to start recycling in your company?
First, you would need to form a team and get commitment from your top management and colleagues. Conduct a waste audit and find ways to minimise waste through reduce and reuse. Next, start a recycling programme and educate your staff on how to recycle. Finally, remember to gather feedback, review and improve your recycling programme.
1. Get Commitment and Form a Team
Highlight the benefits of waste minimisation and recycling to your top management and colleagues, and get their commitment and support. Form a team to be in-charge of the waste minimisation and recycling programme, and ensure that resources are allocated to implement the programme.
2. Conduct a Waste Audit
A waste audit involves finding out the type and quantity of waste generated, and how the waste are generated and disposed. This audit would help you to identify the problems and opportunities for waste reduction.
You can conduct a simple waste audit by sorting the waste in the waste bins to find out the waste type and quantity, checking the material purchasing records and waste disposal records to learn where the waste comes from and where it ends up, and walking around the site and checking with your staff to identify where and how the waste are generated
3. Minimise Waste Through Reduce and Reuse
Based on the waste audit, identify the major waste types and find ways to minimise the waste generation. Reduce them at the source of generation through product or packaging redesign, return materials back to vendors for reuse, or divert them from disposal through creative reuse.
4. Set Up a Recycling Programme
After your waste minimisation efforts, identify the remaining waste that can be recycled. Find a recycling contractor to provide recycling bins or containers, and collection services. You can first approach your current waste contractor and check whether they can provide recycling services.
For commercial buildings and industrial estates with recycling programmes, recycling bins or open-top containers are usually placed at certain locations and the recyclables are collected by the recycling contractor for a fee.
To find a recycling collector who wants your waste, you can use the list of recycling collectors from NEA’s website.
5. Educate Staff on How to Recycle
Educate your staff on the new recycling programme – the location of recycling bins, what can or cannot be recycled, and where the recyclables end up. The education could be conducted through events, talks and through posters and internal email.
6. Review and Improve
Gather feedback about the recycling programme from your staff and conduct checks on the recycling bins to ensure that the correct items are recycled. Monitor the amount of waste generated and recycled. Adjust and improve the recycling programme if necessary.
