Get Your Employees Involved in
Commercial Recycling

Content brought to you by Full Circle Recycling

Internal promotion is the key to all successful recycling programs. Employees will participate if they are informed about the program’s methods, benefits, and are subsequently invited to help shape the results. We recommend four steps for your promotion campaign: forming a task force, sending a kick-off memo, instituting education sessions, and follow-up publicity. In addition, you may want to send out a short survey to your staff before you start your program to gauge the level of interest in recycling. Most people will agree that recycling is a good idea, and once they have done so, are more likely to participate. You may also be able to recruit a program coordinator and monitor by conducting a survey.

Identify Interested Staff:
It is more than likely there is someone on your staff right now with interest in recycling. Choose a dependable coordinator or – in larger offices – announce your intention to recycle and allow staff to nominate themselves for a recycling task force. These individuals will be responsible for quickly determining the needs, structure and promotion of your employee recycling program.

Kick-Off Memo:
At program initiation, send out a kick-off memo announcing the start of the program signed by the president or senior officer of the company. (If the memo is not from a senior officer be sure to indicate his or her support to give the program additional credibility.) In the memo, highlight the benefits of the program and explain the separation and collection procedures.

Educational Sessions:
Encourage all employees to attend a brief information session about the program. Sessions have proven to be far more effective than memos in achieving higher levels of participation and reducing confusion over what is, and what is not recyclable. The sessions can be incorporated into a regular staff meeting where the benefits and the Do’s and Don’ts of recycling can be thoroughly explained. Once your program is up and running, be sure to inform any new employees about the recycling program as part of their orientation. Be sure to include orientation sessions for custodial crews.

Follow-up Publicity:
Reinforcing the new recycling habit is very important. We recommend that you send out recycling updates every quarter including positive information such as quantities recycled and any reduction in trash disposal costs, and any concerns, such as finding regular trash in recycling containers or low participation rates. These regular reminders will help you to maintain a successful program.

Here Are Some Ideas:
• Post centrally or circulate (via email) new articles found by employees.
• Let employees know if too much of the wrong types of paper are being mixed in with the recyclable paper. Remind them of what is and what is not acceptable.

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION
• List the quantity of paper recycled by your company over a period of time. Divide the number of tons (pounds) recycled by the number of employees to get the amount of paper recycled per person.
• List any refuse disposal cost saving if available.
• Encourage employees to use e-mail, if appropriate, and/or make two-sided copies to circulate memos with a routing slip instead of making multiple copies. Also, staff should get in the habit of writing on the blank side of used pages as scratch paper before recycling it.
• Compute the energy and environmental savings from your company’s recycling program:

For Example1:
Recycling one ton of paper saves:
7,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfills space, 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil
4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity (enough energy for an average-sized home for 6 months).

Recycling one ton of cans:
can prevent 13 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

Recycling one ton of newspapers:
can prevent 2.5 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

• Congratulate employees for a job well done. You may even wish to offer specific incentives and/or rewards to the unit or floor with the best participation.

Increasing the efficiency with which your business uses resources saves you money. Follow these tips to better manage materials at your business:
• Establish in-house reuse and recycling:
The waste from one office or process may be a valuable raw material for another office or process.
• Determine whether a waste exchange with another company is an appropriate option for your company:
Your company’s manufacturing waste may be a valued commodity for another company.

6 Steps to Setting Up a Commercial Recycling Program

Important Tips

Waste Reduction and Recycling: A Guide For the Workplace

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