Corporate team building programs create a sense of community with a company and help unite people behind a common goal. Many managers say team-building programs noticeably increase productivity and foster a closer working relationship between the group. When the entire office works toward something greater than themselves, employees feel a sense of achievement and investment in their work, colleagues, and the company itself. Overall, team building exercises are excellent ways to invest in employees as people.

Starting a recycling program for the office is a highly effective way to start a team building experience while also doing something positive for the environment and community. Waste Wise makes starting such a program easy with a wide array of recycling bins to manage waste and customizable recycling containers to promote the initiative.

The In-Office Recycling Containers Program

Starting or reinventing a waste management program at the office is an easy way to help build company morale. Waste Wise offers a number of recycling bins that make recycling easy, such as multi-compartment recycling containers for multi-stream waste and convenient office desk sized recycling bins for paper.

Waste Wise can put your company logo, slogan, or any graphic or text on to fiberglass recycling bins. To build a sense of team spirit, encourage your company’s recycling team to create their own recycling-focused slogan that can be printed, along with your logo, on the in-office recycling bins. Seeing these logos around the office can encourage participation in the recycling program while fostering company pride.

Empowering Employees While Helping The Environment

Encourage your in-house recycling taskforce to communicate the good they are doing to the rest of the office. Have them send out emails their fellow office mates that report how many trees were saved and how much greenhouse gas is removed from our air as a result of the office’s recycling efforts.

Challenge your office with healthy, competitive goals. Create an inter-departmental challenge to see which department can have the most impact on the environment through recycling. This could be limited to office recycling or could include the teams finding ways to clean up the community. The greater the challenge, the greater the sense of accomplishment!

Expanding Into the Community

Don’t let this team building experience stop at the office door. Sponsorship in the community to place customized recycling bins in public areas is an excellent want to help the community and further develop that team spirit.

Imagine what a great feeling it would be to be walking in a park with family and friends and then spotting one of “your” recycling containers? Putting recycling bins in the community that are designed to make waste management easier will help people keep their own neighborhoods cleaner. As an added benefit – it’s great advertising for your company!

There’s no doubt that team building initiatives build strong companies. And when you partner team building with doing something for the greater good of the community, it’s a win, win situation for all involved.

Recycling programs have been expanding throughout the country and now nearly any piece of garbage we produce at home and at the office can be recycled in some form or fashion. Of course, it becomes just that much more difficult to handle multi-stream recycling programs. Comprehensive waste programs often end up leaving us asking what we can and cannot recycle.

Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions before? What are the differences between these numbers on plastic products, can I recycle them all together? Does it matter if I mix paper waste from the office with newspapers and magazines? Should I sort out each different type of scrap metal and color of glass before disposing of them?

Ultimately, Waste Wise Products helps to solve the problems with innovative bins for recycling designed to make multi-stream waste management programs easier to handle and participate in.

Stop Recycling The Old Way

The old way of recycling is to let garbage pile up in bins and then sort everything out for the collectors; this usually happens the night before collection. This is why many residential programs had trouble getting off the ground.

The old method for sorting waste into recycling containers effectively meant you were disposing of your garbage twice and wasting a lot of time in the process. A company of any appreciable size would quickly get buried underneath their recyclables if they tried to sort by hand. So as recycling technology advanced, so must recycling methods in the home and office.

Waste Wise Products Offers The Right Recycling Containers For The Job

It turns out the best way to make multi-stream recycling easy again was to have the right bins for recycling. Our recycling containers have been designed with ease of use in mind. Homeowners and businesses alike find it much easy to participate in their local programs with the right bins for recycling on site.

Waste Wise recycling containers are designed in a number of ways to make them easy to use. Custom opening are shaped like the materials that are supposed to be recycled, like aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Many of our products come with multiple, integrated compartments within a single unit that are all clearly labeled for sorting on the spot. Clip on compartments and riders for recycling containers can turn any bin into multi-stream bins for recycling.

Every size and shape imaginable is produced in order to fit any floor plan or available space, whether it takes a tall and skinny or short and squat solution.

Getting Everyone On Board With Customized Recycling Containers

Waste Wise customizes and personalizes bins for recycling with slogans, lettering, and logos. What does this have to do with effective recycling programs? Individualized recycling containers are a great way for businesses to encourage participation at the office or even sponsor a program in the community. It builds pride to see personalized recycling containers that help make a positive impact on the local environment and community.

Waste Wise provides the latest in today’s trends in functional and customized bins for recycling in order to get the most out of multi-stream waste programs.

The more convenient and easy to understand recycling containers are, the more likely they are to be filled with marketable recyclables than random trash. Selecting recycling containers that are attractive, durable and clearly labeled can significantly increase the likelihood of their being used properly and regularly. They are now available in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and design configurations, making selecting the best one for each application far easier.

Increasing participation in your project means that far less cans, bottles, and paper will end up in landfills and your company’s trash expense will be significantly reduced. A successful program also generates income and improves public image. Today’s recycling bins can feature your company logo, an event calendar, a community slogan, or any other marketing tool that will attract potential participants.

Selecting The Best Recycling Container

Overflowing containers are messy and unsightly and unlikely to be used. At the same time, oversized receptacles use up too much space and are more troublesome to empty. Selecting the proper size container is a major factor to increasing usage. Small, under desk receptacles work well for office programs, whereas large, colorful receptacles work far better at events, in schools, and in break rooms and cafeterias. If only bottles and cans are being collected, receptacles with round openings on top make their purpose clear and reduce the chances of misuse. Large volume, single stream containers work best in factory settings and in community collection programs.

What Color Is Your Recycling Bin?

Color makes a difference in usage, as well. Containers that blend in with the surrounding color scheme are often ignored, whereas more colorful units catch the eye and invite usage. Receptacles can also be order in colors that compliment the established decor while still maintaining their visibility. The psychology of color is another factor to consider. While green is certainly the color associated with being environmentally responsible, reds and yellows are far more visible and blue tends to impart a feeling of serenity and calm. Clearly labeled recycling bins that inform participants of what can and what cannot be recycled make it easier for people to participate in your program.

It’s All About Location

Placement is the biggest factor to in increasing usage of recycling bins. Break rooms and cafeterias provide plenty of recyclable materials, but placing unmarked receptacles too close to garbage cans simply turn in to yet more garbage cans. Placing repositories for bottles and cans somewhat apart from trash cans reduces the likelihood of misuse while still promoting the intended purpose. Paper recycling containers are best located close to printing and copying machines, in file and record storage rooms, and near mailboxes.

These projects can save companies, schools, and communities millions of dollars each year by reducing the costs associated with storing, collecting, transporting, and disposing of garbage. Many recyclable materials are also a source of income in the form of raw materials sold to processing plants. Increased sales that occur as a result of improved goodwill and a positive social image are yet another reason to build a successful program through the use of properly placed recycling containers of the correct size and color, clearly labeled with instructions in their usage.

Cashing in on recyclable materials not only cuts costs, but it can also generate a source of income and build goodwill among customers and the community. Creating a plan to recycle is an exercise in simplicity. The only requirements of a successful project are the correct placement of appropriately designed recycling containers and an education program that encourages participation. Unlike recycling bins of the past, today’s receptacles are sturdy, attractive, and easy to manage.

Reducing the cost of collecting, storing, transporting and disposing of garbage can save your company, school, or event a substantial amount of money. An estimated 60% to 80% of what was once considered ‘trash’ is actually recyclable. Imagine cutting your trash expense by 80% and then selling the recycled materials at a profit. The University of Washington medical Center was able to reduce its landfill costs by over $78,000 and then sold recycled paper and cardboard for over $32,000. That’s a net positive result of over $110,000 in a single year!

Educating The Masses About Messes

There have already been plenty of educational efforts with regards to recyclable materials and protecting the environment. Instead of having to reinvent the wheel, your company or organization can take advantage of the efforts of others by simply reminding potential participants of what they have already been taught about what can be placed in your recycling containers and what cannot.

Clearly labeled recycling bins encourage participation by making the decision-making process that much easier. Cans and bottles are easily placed in recycling containers that feature round openings in the top, whereas paper and cardboard is inserted into slot-shaped openings. This convenience encourages usage and minimizes misuse, cuts your costs and eliminates mess.

Select Shapes And Colors Best Suited For Your Locations

Light years beyond the battered metal trashcans of the 1970’s, today’s receptacles are attractively built from recycled plastic. These units do not crack, peel, or rust, and they provide years of attractive and functional service. Color selection can be made based on a company color scheme, an event logo, or a community crest, providing a visually appealing container that simply begs to be used for its intended purpose. Unlike the traditional greens of the 1980’s, today’s recycling containers come in every color, shape, size, and style imaginable, allowing you to select the best product for your application.

Proper Placement Promotes Participation

Placing bins where they are highly visible and convenient to approach greatly improves participation. Since today’s receptacles are so well designed and labeled, they are far more likely to be used for their intended purpose, instead of as a trash can. Small bins can be used to increase convenience under desks, close to printers and copiers, in lunchrooms and conference rooms. Factories can generate a substantial increase in raw material sales when recycling containers are placed within the factory along the manufacturing route to collect misprinted labels, improperly cut boxes, and faulty cans or bottles.

Using color, placement, style, and location to your advantage can turn a moderately successful program into a financial boon to your company, school, community or event. Significant reductions in garbage costs and increased income from the sale of these useful materials work together to raise your bottom line. The improved public image and goodwill are sure to result in an increase in sales, adding yet another good reason to institute a recycling program at your school, business, and community today.

As safe as we try to make our schools, illnesses still somehow manage to infiltrate our children’s developing immune systems. Once stricken, our little ones are notorious for bringing home germs that ultimately ran rampant throughout the entire family. Surprisingly enough, one of the most effective tools in combating this vicious cycle is a simple antibacterial hand sanitizer. Initiating the sound practice of consistently using antibacterial hand sanitizer not only helps fight the spread of disease during flu and cold season, but also protects against illness and communicable viruses and infection throughout the year.

But not all hand sanitizers are created equally. Just about any soap available on pharmacy or supermarket shelves claims to be “antibacterial.” Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer is specially formulated with powerful bacteria fighting ingredients to produce a potent, non-alcoholic solution that is gentle on hands and yet highly antiseptic. Since Soapopular is rinse free, it makes for a convenient antibacterial hand sanitizer that can be used virtually anywhere and at any time.

Convenience Is Key To Success

Having access to a sink, soap and water throughout the school day can often seem impractical at best. Instant access to a quick, easy sanitation product that can be used anywhere at anytime plays a critical role in successfully fighting germs. Antibacterial hand sanitizer placed strategically throughout the home, work environment and school facility achieves the goal of convenient sanitation and helps strengthen the routine of consistently using the product as part of a daily regimen.

Sanitation At School

All high traffic school areas require high capacity dispensers of Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer. Putting a high capacity, wall mounted unit at the entrance to every restroom, classroom, and the cafeteria keeps students in the habit of sanitizing their hands. Unveiling a new building program which emphasizes the importance of cleanliness in preventing the spread of illness will also reinforce the practice as well.

The staff and faculty should also be included in the school wide initiative to protect themselves against avoidable infection whenever possible.  Dispensers should be placed in all “staff only” areas and administration should encourage all employees to participate in the program and lead the children by their own exemplary vigilance.

Sanitation At Hand

Since loved ones are not always near a sink or have access to a public dispenser, keeping Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer on our persons is another key strategy to keeping illnesses at bay. For personal use, Waste Wise Products offers Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer that can fit in any sized pocket, purse, or desk drawer.

A pen sized dispenser is also ideal for transport in a purse, pocket, or even clipped to a belt. Small 30 and 100 milliliter sized bottles fit well in a car glove box or can rest on a desk or table for ease of use. These personal sized dispensers are designed to go anywhere and be used at any time; making applying Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer both simple and convenient.

From pen sized dispensers, a bottle on a desk and a large dispenser in public areas, stopping the spread of illness is easy with convenient Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer solutions.

Experts estimate that over $63 billion dollars of productivity is lost annually across the country due to worker illness and injury. This calculation accounts for an average of 8 sick days per year per worker and further translates into roughly $1500 of lost work and output per year. These PTO days, when taken all together, really impact the bottom lines of companies nationwide.

A process as simple as consistently using hand sanitizer is an effective tool for resisting the spread of unforeseen and avoidable illness and increasing overall office production. Surprisingly, providing employees access to hand sanitizer on-site can help save an organization billions of dollars a year.

Saving Money At The Office With Hand Sanitizer

A recent corporate trend shows that, despite harboring a lingering cold or illness, many workers are reporting back to the office before they are truly fully recovered. Employees may feel that their presence increases productivity and helps avoid work piling up untouched during their absence. However, returning prematurely only allows for a sickness to infect other co-workers, ultimately costing the business more money. The use of hand sanitizer ultimately impacts a company’s bottom line by slowing or altogether stopping the spread of germs and illness in this vicious cycle.

Utilizing an innocuous and effective product, such as Soapopular hand sanitizer, as well as implementing and enforcing a company policy, plays a pivotal role in the quest to squash bugs before they can infect workers and diminish company productivity. Efforts such as these will have a huge impact on staff, especially during cold and flu season when a strong virus can put an entire department on bed rest.

Convenient And Effective Solutions

The best route for stopping illness at work is with an office program that utilizes dispensers of Soapopular throughout the office along with unveiling a company policy on its use. This simple initiative costs pennies compared to the overall savings associated with maintaining a healthy office environment.

Convenience represents a critical factor in an office program’s success. Soapopular is a non-alcohol, water free, rinse free hand sanitizer that is ideal for use throughout an office even when soap and water are not readily available. By using wall mounted dispensers of Soapopular hand sanitizer in common rooms such as the cafeteria, conference spaces and break rooms, employees can get a quick dose before a meal or a meeting. This is a nonintrusive, easy to implement solution for keeping germs out of the work place.

Making Hand Sanitizer Personal

Providing complementary personal distributor for individual use can prove just as crucial as having Soapopular hand sanitizer dispensers at the disposal of the masses. Handing out smaller sized and pen-shaped dispensers printed with a company logo can increase company morale as well as diminish the spread of germs.

Larger dispensers of hand sanitizer also work well when placed strategically on desks and other surfaces throughout the facility. Placing Soapopular in every office and at common areas such as the copier or the reception area encourages visitors to get involved in the program as soon as they step through the door.

While everyone understands that hand sanitizers provide obvious health benefits, putting them to work in the office can also provide a huge benefit to a company’s overall productivity and bottom line.

The success of waste recycling programs often depends on having the right recycling bins in place. Convenience, utility, and appearance all factor in to how people will react to a program and how easy it will be for them to correctly utilize recycling containers. When choosing recycling bins for a residential curbside pickup, establishing an office program, or putting recycling containers in schools, consider these five points in order to make the right decision when purchasing with Waste Wise Products.

Focus On Capacity

The right recycling containers have to be properly sized; if they are too large they will waste space and not reach capacity before pickup. Recycling bins that are too small won’t work as waste spills over onto the ground. In order to determine the proper capacity, keep these factors in mind. First, determine the pickup schedule. Second, choose whether to have a large number of small units that can be emptied into one larger piece or have recycling bins that can stand on their own. Keep in mind that these units can be heavy when they are full, try using smaller pieces or recycling bins with wheels, especially in high traffic areas.

Ease Of Use And Collection

Recycling bins are much more than just receptacles that are meant to sit around taking up space. In order to have an effective program in place, each unit has to be matched to its function and be easy to handle. For residential setups, the overall weight of recyclables has to be kept reasonable for a single person to handle. Office and school implementations should also keep an eye towards efficiency with wheeled utility units instead of having significant manpower required to move a set of recycling bins for collection.

Materials Of Construction

Like any purchase, high quality recycling bins will have a long service life and are worth the investment. For the ultimate in green solutions, Waste Wise offers recycled plastic recycling bins. Mold injected plastic units also exhibit good durability for long lasting service in the home, office, or school setting.

Sorting Multi Stream Programs

A common complaint from people is the perceived complexity of multi stream systems. One of the best ways to address this problem is with recycling containers that have multiple slots and compartments for each different stream with intuitive visual cues. People will participate more and feel a sense of involvement when they are easily able to sort their waste.

Recycling Containers That Look Good While Doing The Job

Especially for office and school programs, having attractive recycling containers plays an important role for high participation and pride in a program. Waste Wise offers custom fiberglass units that can be adorned with company logos and slogans as well as school colors and mascots. A sense of ownership goes a long way to creating highly effective programs.

These five points cover a lot of ground when implementing a waste disposal program for residential, commercial, and school use. In the end, the right recycling containers are important for the success of any recycling initiative.

A recent national survey revealed that nearly 9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were easier. It is no wonder that an estimated 60% of the garbage that we are still throwing away could be recycled instead. Making these programs more effective is a top priority in order to enjoy all the benefits that recycling programs offer us, the economy and our environment.

Waste Wise Products has identified two major areas where we can encourage more participation. First, the right bins for recycling make the entire process easier and will help foster a sense of involvement in order to increase employee participation. In addition to the right recycling containers, the proper education on why these programs are so important and they benefits they carry convinces many people to put forth the extra effort to participate. Let’s take a look at what makes the right type of bins for recycling and how to educate employees.

Recycling Containers That Make A Difference

Making participation easier begins with a set of recycling containers. Garbage has to be properly sorted and then disposed of in multi-stream programs, but these parts often cause confusion and put people off from doing their part. The right recycling containers will solve this problem.

The best way to make sense of multi-stream programs is to use multi-purpose recycling containers. 90 gallon all-in-one units come with multiple compartments that are clearly marked with the different types of garbage and can be placed in a cafeteria or other large common area. Within each individual office, desk sized dual compartment recycling containers can help separate trash, or rider bins for recycling can be clipped onto a typical waste basket to instantly add another compartment.

Recycling containers should also be placed close to where garbage is generated. Recycling containers for handling paper should be placed near office printers, copiers, and fax machines. Bins for recycling glass and cans should be in break rooms, the cafeteria, and in each hallway. In addition, bins for recycling cardboard should be placed in shipping and receiving areas.

Waste Wise Products also offers a large range of fiberglass bins for recycling that can be customized with a company’s logo and slogan for a personal touch to help create a sense of involvement in a program.

Educating Employees
Even with convenient, easy to use bins for recycling, some employees will still hesitate to participate. At this point, a simple education program can do wonders. Have a companywide email go out every week and include one fact about how recycling will save money, energy, and our natural resources. Use facts like for every 1 ton of plastic that is recycled we save the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 month’s time, and almost 2000 pounds of oil. Consider placing placards or notes on office boards that describe how many jobs are created from the processing and re-use of recycled materials.
In order to encourage participation in the office program, make sure your business has the right set of recycling containers while educating employees on the benefits of the program.

No one wants to get sick. Sometimes it just happens. There are many ways to reduce germs and bacteria which spread illness and disease. One method is through using hand sanitizer. While hand washing with soap and warm water is ideal, this is not always practical. Many places we go do not have running water conveniently available. For those in-between times when your hands get dirty, like with elevators, playgrounds, office meetings and in restaurants, hand sanitizer is a quick and healthy fix.

Taking precautions to reduce the spread of germs is also helpful in the prevention of an influenza pandemic, in particular. The various strains of flu are spread mostly through hand-to-hand and hand-to-surface contact. The flu affects the respiratory system and can cause a variety of symptoms, including fever, sore throat, nasal congestion, coughing and a headache.

Once someone handles a surface contaminated with this virus and others, they can contract a disease by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. While most common in the fall and winter, illnesses can be contracted at any time of year. Another common way to get sick is through contaminated food surfaces.

Keep hands, countertops and utensils clean. Wash your hands when cooking or eating. After a meal, if there is no running water available (or after washing hands with soap and water) use antibacterial hand sanitizer.

We carry Soapopular’s array of products in a variety of sizes. They are 99.9% effective at killing harmful germs in a matter of seconds. Keep a dispenser with you for those times when hand washing is inconvenient and/or impossible. Use it regularly, especially when coming into contact with crowds of people or frequently used surfaces.

Wastewise wants to help reduce the spread of illness and the possibility of pandemics from flu and other viruses. Aside from frequent hand washing and use of hand sanitizer, keep these other tips in mind. If we all work together, we can reduce the spread of illness and disease.

•    Avoid close contact with others, especially if you know that they are sick. Watch out for signs of illness, such as coughing and sneezing. Be extra vigilant about what you touch when people complain of fever and sore throat.

•    When you are not feeling well, stay home. Do not chance getting other people sick as well.

•    Cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing. Do not immediately touch surfaces or people afterwards. Clean your hands first.

One of our new product lines is Soapopular antibacterial hand sanitizer. The alcohol-free foam is put in the palm of the hand – a dollop about the size of your thumbnail will do. We also carry smaller misting dispensers – give those a squirt. Rub your hands together thoroughly so that the product is spread evenly over all parts of both hands. You don’t need water or paper towels, just the antiseptic foam. It kills 99.9% of all germs, fungi and bacteria. Now available through Wastewise, it comes in a variety of sizes and containers. Let’s take a look at the different sizes and how you might best use them.

The 550 milliliter dispenser handles more than 1,000 applications of the waterless hand sanitizer. This is an ideal size for offices and reception areas in public buildings and schools. Just place it in a convenient place, like by the door. As people come in and out, they can use Soapopular on the go.

We also feature a size at 250 milliliters, which is good for more than 500 uses. Put one in your kitchen or minivan for the whole family to use. Keep a dispenser in the office conference room or classroom to reduce the spread of germs and fungi.

The 100 milliliter travel size is a controlled foaming sanitizer dispenser providing more than 200 applications. This is perfect for popping into your backpack, duffel bag, purse, brief case, desk or car. Take it with you to home, school, work or the gym. It’s ideal for using after coming into contact with elevators, staircases, conference room and cafeteria tables, as well as public workout equipment.

The handy size misting dispenser holds 30 milliliters of Soapopular sanitizer. Keep it in your desk drawer, pocket, briefcase, locker, glove box, diaper bag or purse. It holds enough product for more than 70 uses.

We understand that sometimes people on the go have nothing but a purse or pocket. Our personal size misting dispenser is just 10 milliliters. Take it hiking, biking or walking. Slip it into your notebook on the way to class or keep it on your car visor for a quick mist. It takes up little space, but helps keep infections and germs to a minimum so you can enjoy your busy lifestyle.