Waste in the Workplace

Aircraft emissions

Airplanes burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and are now the fastest-growing man-made contributor to carbon dioxide emissions.

Copyright John Kennedy

Aircraft emissions
Copyright John Kennedy

Aircraft emissions

Airplanes burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and are now the fastest-growing man-made contributor to carbon dioxide emissions.

Copyright John Kennedy

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Businesses can gain a lot from being kind to the environment. Some of the reasons why they should strive to reduce waste include:

• It saves money
• It improves reputation
• It protects our shared environment

If a business is just starting out on a waste management programme, a waste audit is essential. It should focus on stopping valuable materials being wasted in the first place, rather than solely recycling.

Printing on both sides of paper, recycling office stationary and purchasing reusable products are all simple measures any business can take. You can also save more money by examining what ends up in your bins and skips. Promotion of recycling within the office environment is an ideal way of both educating your work force and helping to reduce the waste output. It is also important to try to use 'green products' like energy saving lightbulbs, green certified printers and computers, recyclable copy paper, biodegradable cups, recycled binders and refillable pens.

Allowing waste management to decline in the workplace is costly. The misuse of resources costs some companies up to 4.5% of their turnover, for example a computer monitor being left on standby consumes €19 of electricity per year.

Other ideas to reduce business waste include using rail for freight in preference to road or air travel. Better still is the use of telecommunications to minimise the need to travel.