We know, it sounds like a wild idea — but it’s true. Many items that we own have been made out of recycled products that we wouldn’t even fathom. So your favorite parka may actually be made out of the exact same materials as park benches. Obviously these items are made using entirely different methods, but the process of recycling, or rather, downcycling, remains the same.

Interesting Items Made Out Of Discarded Plastic

Parkas and park benches aren’t the only items that have been made from plastic water bottles. The carpet you’re standing on, the jacket you’re wearing and even your sleeping bag could have been made using downcycled plastic drinking containers. Plastic water bottles can also be transformed into basic shower curtains or even upscale purses and handbags.

Other types of plastics, most commonly used for larger beverage containers and household cleaners, often become outdoor play and leisure equipment. Playgrounds, picnic tables, park benches, frisbees – They’re all made using old plastic containers.

Plastic bags can be regenerated to become composite lumber, which is a strong and durable building material. Likewise, plastic bags are also being regenerated into building materials for children, in the form of building blocks.

Making Pedals Out Of Metals

All metal cans, with the exception being aluminum, are downcycled and transformed into sturdy transportation devices and building materials. Metal cans are oftentimes used to create parts for bicycles, motorcycles and vehicles. Contrary to their mobile counterparts, metal cans can also be melted down and remanufactured into stationary building supports such as steel beams and rebar.

Pushing Paper Has Never Been So Interesting

Paper, in it’s versatile nature, has the ability to be recycled as well as downcycled. Paper can always be recycled to create new paper, although the quality of the paper lessens with each round of recycling it endures.

Instead of creating an endless supply of cheap paper, many of these wasted pages become something just as useful. Common household supplies such as paper towels, tissues, toilet paper and napkins all share their common creator: Notebook and computer paper.

Another type of paper that is just as common as the type referenced above is newspaper. These daily bundles are discarded as fast as they are created. So what happens to them after they have filled a recycling bin? Well, they can be transformed into convenient carrying cases such as egg cartons and berry boxes. In addition to the items that you find at your local grocery store, you may very well find more interesting uses for discarded newspapers at your local hardware store. Recycled newspapers can also be used to create building materials such as sheetrock and countertops.

The possibilities for taking used, discarded items and turning them into something that is useful benefits consumers and the environment.

While some items are suitable to endure an infinite cycle of regeneration into their previous state, many others are transformed into entirely new products through a process called ‘downcycling’.

Downcycling vs. Recycling

Recycling is the process of regenerating a product into its previous state through a cycle of breaking it down and recreating it. On the other hand, downcycling involves taking discarded items and breaking them down to turn them into a completely different product.

Many items are downcycled due to the fact that they may lose much of their mass as they are broken down into their pure material. It may take far too many recycled bottles to create a new bottle, so instead of repeating the bottling process, these bottles will now be turned into a completely new, and often unexpected, product.

Extreme Trash Makeover

Many everyday items that you use may never be given a second thought as to how they were made, or where they came from. If we knew the origin of some of our belongings, we would surely marvel at the ingenious process of how they were created.

The commercial park benches that sit outside of your office building, well, they were most likely made from piles of plastic shopping bags that came from grocery stores. And those plastic picnic tables that your family uses on Sunday trips to the park, those were once plastic water bottles.

Downcycled products are a better solution for the environment than most items that are made using newly created materials. The amount of resources that are used and pollution that is created to create brand new commercial park benches and plastic picnic tables far exceeds the amount of energy that is used to create them through downcycling.

Downcycled products are just as beneficial to the environment as recycled products, and due to the fact that they have comparable prices to new products, there is virtually no reason to create new materials when we have almost endless resources of discarded products waiting to become something bigger and better.

Swing-Sets and Slides Made From Recycled Materials Benefit Children and Mother Nature

Choosing swing-sets, slides, monkey bars and other play equipment that is manufactured using 100% recycled steel and plastic can be both economical for your family and beneficial for the environment. Playground equipment that has been made from recycled products is extremely environmentally friendly, because it can transform old, discarded items into a child’s play haven.

Utilizing recycled tires in your backyard playground can also do wonders for the environment. But we’re not talking the tried and true tire-swing, we’re talking about recycled rubber playground tiles. Rubber tiles are made from recycled tires and they can be easily installed over many surfaces, giving children a soft, bouncy cushion underneath their feet. Recycled rubber tiles are low maintenance, extremely durable and slip resistant, making them a fitting choice for a child’s play area.

Add Plastic Picnic Tables or Park Benches to Your Outdoor Living and Dining Space

What outdoor living space would be complete without places to sit and relax or dine with your family and friends? Made from 100% recycled plastic, picnic tables are a great addition to any outdoor space, providing families with a place to eat together on warm days and nights.

Plastic picnic tables have come a long way from the days of brightly colored miniature seating sets made for children. There are many different sizes, styles and colors to choose from, so finding plastic picnic tables that compliments your home is easier than ever.

If you’re looking to create a space to relax in your yard or garden, consider adding a park bench along a walkway or using one to create a conversation area. Park benches can resemble traditional wood and cast iron styles, or even simple wooden seating.

Park benches made from 100% recycled plastic are a great addition to an outdoor area, due to their low maintenance and extreme durability. Incorporating these pieces alongside a garden or playground can create a relaxing outdoor retreat that the whole family will enjoy.

Discover How Sunshine and Fresh Air Can Benefit Your Employees, and Ultimately, Your Business

Fresh air and sunshine have plenty of positive health effects, and these effects will not only benefit your employees as they bask in the outdoor space you’ve created for them – they can have a positive impact on the quality of work your employees produce as well.

Both fresh air and sunshine produce higher levels of serotonin in the body, the hormone responsible for balancing and elevating moods. Sunshine also produces endorphins, which lead to an increased sense of well-being and lower stress levels, among other things. In addition to raising levels of mood enhancing hormones into the body, fresh air carries higher levels of oxygen than recycled air does, improving concentration and boosting energy levels.

Spending as little as 10 minutes at a time outside can help employees feel refreshed enough to come back into the office, ready to tackle their next assignment.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Some employees make it a habit to scramble out the door as soon as their lunch break begins – Spending at least half of their lunch break driving or walking to and from a local restaurant. On the other hand, some employees wouldn’t dream of spending their break time on the go, so they opt to eat their lunch in the company break room or even at their desk.

Creating a space for employees to take their lunch break outside of the office, but centrally located, is key. Any unused space outside of the office building will do. If you have nothing but a large slab of concrete that appears rather dull and depressing, dress it up with plenty of potted plants, and perhaps a simple water feature. These natural elements can transform a drab place into a serene space for relaxing. Adding commercial park benches and picnic tables for employees to take a seat, eat and rest their feet — and their minds — can be beneficial for workers who could benefit from stepping away from their work, if only for an hour.

Your employees are the driving force of your business, and happy employees produce both higher quantity and quality of work. Creating an outdoor space with picnic tables, commercial park benches and natural scenery can go a long way in helping your employees shake their mid-day mindset and get ready to go back into the office — relaxed and recharged.

With recycling centers being widespread and available to the public, consumers are taking advantage of this opportunity to make money where they hadn’t considered before: Inside their own recycling bins. Each time a can or bottle is thrown into recycling bins, it transforms into change that collects in a piggy bank. Before they know it, some people have accumulated hundreds of dollars with of bottles and cans, just waiting to be redeemed for cash.

Why Should I Recycle My Own Items?

With the average redemption value for bottles and cans being between 5 cents for smaller containers and 10 cents for larger containers, it makes perfect sense to store these items in recycling bins until they are full. The amount of waste that is discarded from cans, bottles, packaging and other items can add up quicker than some people realize.

The average payout for a four person family per year is $180.50, which may not seem like much, but that is at the rate of 2 drink containers a day per person, as well as one large container per week being recycled. For larger families, or for individuals or groups that consume large amounts of food or drink that is packaged in recyclable materials, the payout can be much, much larger. And all of that money is money that would have gone out on trash pick up day.

Getting started

The most effective way to recycle on your own would be to have separate recycling bins for different materials. By dividing paper and cardboard, plastic, glass and metal into their own recycling bins, it will make it much easier on you when you get to the recycling center. Recycling centers have large conveyor belts that weigh the items before dumping them into giant recycling bins, and each station is specified for particular materials.

By separating your items into recycling bins beforehand, you will undoubtedly save yourself a lot of time at the recycling center. After your items are weighed, you will receive a printed voucher, which you simply bring inside to redeem for your money.

By investing a little bit of money into new recycling bins and a small amount of your time, you may be able to see a pretty nice sized return on your recyclables. This is money that you may have been throwing out on trash day, so why not keep it for yourself so you can invest in something you really want?

As more teachers are boosting their efforts in encouraging kids to recycle, reduce, and reuse, we would like to share some ideas for making a lasting impression on children when it comes to recycling. Kids thrive from hands-on activity, rewards and incentive, so why not combine all three into your teaching approach? By simply making it fun for kids to recycle, we believe that teachers will see more effort from their students to participate in classroom recycling programs.

Turn Recycling Into a Team Effort

There are plenty of fun activities and crafts for children to do using nothing but recyclable products. You can have your students design shirts, posters, and recycling containers with the ‘recycle, reduce, reuse’ theme. Students can then hang their posters over the recycling containers all over the school, thus reminding other students to join them in their efforts in reducing waste.

As the bottles, cans and other recyclable materials fill the recycling containers, teachers can take the items to a local recycling center and redeem them for cash. As the school year progresses, the profits can really add up!

Send Them On a Treasure Hunt for Trash

Students can also collect recyclables from friends and neighbors and set up small recycling containers at home. Students can collect items for their recycling containers, bringing the cans and bottles in for recycling.

Turn Trash Into Fun

At the end of the year, teachers can take all of the money that has been collected from students’ recycling efforts and throw the students a party. This is a great incentive for kids to recycle, because now they realty get to enjoy their reward. Include food, drinks and games for your students to play, all with a recycling theme.

Some fun games to play at the party include a coffee can coin toss, where students toss coins into an old coffee can. Students can also go ‘miniature bowling,’ using a ball and empty two-liter bottles as pins. You can also set up hoops over recycling containers and have students shoot crushed up cans into it. Also, students can be divided into teams to construct the largest tower they can out of cardboard and other recyclable materials — the tallest tower that doesn’t fall over wins.

Teachers can hold a contest where students make crafts out of materials found inside recycling containers. The most creative craft takes the prize.

All of the food and activities are either paid for by taking the recycling containers to a recycling center, or brought in by students from home. Kids will love seeing their efforts pay off, and they will carry the memories of the party with them for years to come. This should help to create waste reducing habits that can last a lifetime.

The Future Of Recycling Bins

In the near future, more and more waste management programs are moving to single stream recycling containers. This means that end users, homeowners, businesses, and industries do not have to sort their recyclable material beforehand. Newer processing and sorting facilities can handle a single stream of waste that contains a mixture of different types of recycled material.

One of the largest impacts of single stream programs is to make filling up recycling containers easier and more convenient. This will help to increase participation and increase the volume of waste that is captured and can be reused in new products.

Corporate Product Stewardship And Cradle To Grave Design

Most green initiatives were created to handle waste that was never really designed to be recycled. Older electronic waste is full of toxic substances and heavy metals that would ultimately end up on landfills and then into the ground and water supply. The future of manufacturing will be cradle to grave design, meaning that products are engineered with reuse, recycling, and disposal in mind. Tomorrow’s products will be designed to be modular, reusable, and as raw materials for continued production.

One example that is happening today is the take back program that allows customers to bring older models of electronics back to a retailer to purchase the latest model. Meanwhile, the old models can be properly disposed of and reused by the manufacturer.

Changing How We Use Oil

Petroleum is the basis for nearly all plastic products. As the price of oil continues to rise, every day products become more expensive. Recycled plastic also becomes much more economically attractive. As more and more plastic items are recycled and reclaimed for reuse, society will begin to lessen its dependence on oil. This will help save a non-renewable resource from being depleted and help keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, even to the point where we can one day begin to reverse the effects of global warming.

The Long Term Goal

The long term goal for green living is zero waste. Simply put, the ideal situation is to have every item that we use become the raw materials for new products as they are made. One day, landfills may no longer be needed as one day’s waste becomes the next day’s goods. With a combination of cradle to grave design, reuse, and recycling, zero waste is an achievable goal and a worthy investment.

Composting: Nature’s Recycling Bins

Organic waste is a major component of the waste that ends up in landfills. By capturing yard trimmings, grass clippings, food waste, and other organics in a composter, people can have a huge impact on their environment. Composting reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that end up as emissions. Commercial fertilizer production is a major source of greenhouse gasses; residential composting severely reduces greenhouse gas emissions while being a near zero cost fertilizer for personal use.

Setting up a composter is very easy; any container will do. The only components needed to make compost out of waste are air, water, and time. Periodically turn over compost bins with a shovel or rake, keep the bins moist, and let natural bacteria do all of the work. The end product is a nutrient rich fertilizer that can be used on the lawn, garden, and anyone around the home.

Composting is the ideal complement to using recycling bins for plastic, metal, and paper waste.

Being Smart With E-waste

As more and more personal electronic devices are produced, more and more older models of electronics find their way into landfills. However, electronics contain a number of toxic substances including heavy metals. When introduced into a landfill, these toxins can leach out into the environment and the water supply. A truly effective green lifestyle requires the proper handling of e-waste.

The best way to manage e-waste is to contact local recycling centers and waste management program administrators. They can provide collection and disposal information to ensure e-waste doesn’t poison the environment.

Tackling Plastic Bag Waste

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States consumes about 380 billion plastic bags every year. Unfortunately, only about 5 percent of those bags end up in recycling bins. The balance ends up occupying the dwindling available space in landfills where they take centuries to decompose. Tackling the challenge of managing plastic bags will have a significant impact on managing landfills in years to come. In fact, some cities have even banned grocery stores from handing them out.

Ideally, these items should be reused when at all possible. Reusing them at the grocery store keeps them out of landfills. Other options include buying a reusable tote bag for carrying home groceries. These totes are inexpensive and many retailer offer a credit for their use, allowing consumers to earn their money back while helping the environment.

Bags that end up as waste must find their way into recycling bins. There they can be reused as building material. Recycled plastic lumber can be used to make park benches and patio furniture while recycled fibers can be woven into synthetic textiles.

Truly responsible green living doesn’t stop with recycling bins; green living goes much further into all aspects of life.

It is easy to get started with recycling and living a green lifestyle while having an impact on your local, regional, and even the global environment. Here’s how to get started today.

Starting Small While Making A Big Impact – Recycling Bins And Beyond

Making a commitment and getting starting with a set of recycling bins is a huge step. Every item that you place in recycling containers saves that much room in a landfill, saves natural resources from being depleted, and reduces your carbon footprint. A full set of recycling bins on your curbside or taken to your recycling center every week adds up to a big change very quickly.

One of the best parts about recycling is that you can do it no matter where you are. Use your recycling bins at home, recycle while you are in the office, attending classes, and anywhere you can find recycling containers. Plus, by recycling, you will lead by example; once recycling bins start popping up in neighborhoods or at the office many other people take notice and follow that lead.

Knowing How To Fill Up Your Recycling Containers

Still, people can be reluctant to start using recycling containers. They might have difficulty sorting their waste or storing and using the extra recycling bins. Thankfully, recycling containers and their designs have improved greatly over the years. Multi compartment recycling bins plus nesting and slip together recycling containers make for easy, instant sorting while saving on space.

Much of the waste that we generate on a daily basis can be recycled. Plastic containers, aluminum cans, newspaper, office paper, magazines, phone books, electronics, and many more items can all be recycled. The best way to find out is to go to your local recycling center or contact city hall. You will be amazed at what you can put into your recycling bins.

Going One Step Further – Reduce And Reuse

You can go one step further than filling up your recycling bins. Reduce what you use and reuse what you do use. Every single item you can refrain from using has a huge impact; consider how much packaging, transportation fuel, and energy goes into every product. Use cloth napkins instead of paper and heavy duty plastic dishes for outdoor dining. Set your printer to double sided printing to cut your office paper usage in half.

After you finish using a product, find another use for it. Containers can be re-used to hold pantry items, hand soap, knick knacks, and more. Combine scrap lumber, wood stain, and a few hooks to create a decorative coat rack. The possibilities are endless.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle; start today and have an impact.

Putting More Than Just Paper Into Recycling Bins

Many offices utilize recycling containers for paper trash. However, going green involves utilizing your recycling bins for much more than scrap printer paper. Green offices today find ways to recycle as much of their waste as possible.

Magazines, newspapers, and cardboard boxes are all very common in many offices and they should be dedicated recycling bins for all of these items as well. Electronic waste is also prevalent in many offices. Electronics have to be properly disposed of and cannot go directly in the trash. This includes old computers, printer, copiers, company cell phones, toner cartridges, and any other electronic devices. Contact your local recycling center or check with city hall to learn the right way to recycle electronic waste.

In your office cafeteria, canteen, or break room, make sure you provide recycling containers for plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and any other recyclable food packaging.

Saving Money And The Environment By Using Less

A key initiative for many offices is a focus on reducing costs. Reducing the amount of materials used in an office to reduce costs goes hand in hand with green programs to reduce the amount of commercial waste generated. Here are a just a few great tips to reduce material usage, save costs, and prevent our country’s landfills from overflowing:

• Share magazines, newspapers, and trade articles between departments
• Use electronic billboards, memorandums, and posters instead of paper ones
• Print unimportant documents on scrap paper
• Enable double sided printing
• Provide porcelain mugs in the break room rather than disposable Styrofoam cups
• Install motion sensor lights that automatically shut off at the end of the day to reduce electricity usage

Promoting A Green Culture

The most important parts of all of these programs and techniques are participation and the right company culture. Rallying employees around recycling bins and green programs helps to create a sense of civic pride. Stress to employees that they are participating in making their own neighborhoods cleaner and greener. Stress to management that green programs show corporate stewardship of the environment on a local and global scale.

In the end, it is vital to lead by example; this will encourage participation and display how important a green office really is. Make it easy for employees to take part and really feel a sense of ownership. In addition, today’s recycling bins and programs are designed to be more convenient and attractive. At the end of the day, people feel good about working in a green office.

Keeping Recycling Bins Out Of Sight In The Kitchen

Many of the same technique that you use to keep your regular wastebasket out of sight in the kitchen work for recycling containers as well. You can place bins underneath the sink in a cabinet. You can also buy recycling bins with a slip attachment and slip it to the inside of a cabinet door. If you use this method, make sure to only fill this bin with light waste, such as plastic bottles, to avoid damaging the door. You can also use a clip on bin and attach it to your regular waste basket in order to save space.

There are also pull out slides that you can use underneath your cabinets. These have the added benefit of pulling out to make throwing away trash move convenient. With a sliding drawer, you can use larger recycling containers and fill them with heavier items (like glass bottles) without worrying about damaging anything. You can pull out your recycling bins when needed and then quickly hide them out of sight.

You can also use a lazy Susan rotating type of accessory under a corner cabinet. You can place a number of smaller recycling containers on the rotating platform and you can instantly store and sort all of your recyclables in one spot. You can buy a set of smaller recycling containers that clip to one another and keep them all in place as you rotate the platform.

Best of all, these tips will keep your recycling bins out of sight without having to put them outside or in the garage. Plus, who wants to head outside or into the garage every time they want to throw out a bottle?

Tips And Tricks To Fit Your Recycling Containers Into Your Home’s Layout

Today, recycling containers come in a number of different designs. For homes with a modern, contemporary design to them, there are recycling containers that are made from steel that go well with a modern kitchen design. Other recycling bin options include units designed with sharp lines and bold colors. While you aren’t literally hiding the receptacles, you are visually integrating them into the home.

Whether you hide your recycling containers or integrate them with your home’s decor, there’s no reason why you can’t make recycling convenient without creating an eyesore. When recycling is convenient, more and more people get involved.

Keeping Recycling Bins Clean In The First Place

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so one of the best ways to keep your recycling containers clean is to clean waste before it hits the bin. Thoroughly washing all of your recyclables is much more than you really need to do; it is amazing how a quick rinse of your recyclables before you dispose of them will keep your recycling containers cleaner longer.

If you store recycling containers outside, you will want to use a container that has a drain to let rainwater flow out rather than accumulate in the bottom. You can also drill a small hole yourself into existing recycling bins. Either way, this will help keep your receptacles cleaner.

You can also use a liner in your recycling bins just like a normal waste can. The only catch is if you sort your recyclables, you have to make sure to not throw away a plastic liner along with your newspaper or glass bottle recycling. In the end, it is easier to keep recycling bins with liners clean.

Green Cleaning Products To Use On Your Recycling Containers

Since you’ve embraced green living by participating in a recycling program, you might as well continue that trend by using green cleaning products on your bins. Baking soda makes for an excellent natural cleaner that can be found in nearly every home.

To clean recycling bins with baking soda, sprinkle a light coating into the bin itself. Dampen the baking soda and then lightly scrub the interior of the container with a rag or floor mop. Use a hose to spray rinse out the bin and then leave the container in the sun, on its side, to dry.

Creating Green Cleaners From Things Around The House

There are numerous household items that you can use as a cleaner without dumping chemicals and toxins into the environment. Vinegar is a good all purpose cleaner that you can use on your recycling bins. Mix a quarter cup of distilled white vinegar with a quart of water to make a quick and easy all purpose cleaner. Using hot water works even better if you want to make the mixture fresh for a specific cleaning job, but making a large batch and leaving it at room temperature works well too.

If you miss the scents and fragrances of most cleaners, you can easily make your own scented, green cleaners. Adding just one drop of essential oils (found in natural food stores) to your cleaning solution will give you the scent you are used to. You can even add a dash of lemon juice to achieve a similar affect.

Green cleaning and recycling go hand in hand — combining both of them is a big step in the direction of living a greener life.

Fill Up Your Recycling Bins, Not Our Landfills

Everything you throw away ends up in a landfill, taking up space while just rotting away. Everything you put in your recycling containers, however, gets a second lease on life. This saves space in landfills, saves the natural resources needed to make new products, and helps to create green jobs. So using your recycling bins has a wide ranging impact.

Recycling containers today are easier to use than ever. More cities are running single stream programs that do not require you to sort your different recyclables. If you do have to sort, there are a wide range of recycling containers that will make sorting easy and painless.

You can start with clip-on recycling bins in the office to catch paper waste, multi-component recycling containers in the garage to instantly sort plastic and cans, and finish up with a set of sleek, modern square recycling bins in the kitchen.

Go One Step Further – Reuse Old Items

If you can find another use for an old item, that is even better than throwing it into your recycling bins. There are tons of ideas to inspire everyone to reuse nearly any item in the house. Here’s just a tiny sampling of what you can reuse.

• Spaghetti and mason jars can store leftovers or bulk kitchen items, be used to hold a holiday gift, or organize your small household items.
• Old plastic plant potters can be used to sift rock salt onto your driveway during the winter, strain vegetables from the garden, or organize all of your loose nuts, screws, and bolts.
• Vintage glass soda bottles can become attractive containers for dish soap and many products in the kitchen.

Bottom line, anything you can reuse has a lasting impact.

Buy Energy Efficient Products

Every year, more products come on the market that are energy efficient or made with green manufacturing processes. Everything from high efficiency light bulbs to recycled materials help to ease the impact of using up raw materials. When you buy high efficiency appliances and electronics, you are also saving money and energy in the long run. Of course, once you have used these products, don’t forget to put them into your recycling bins or find a new way to reuse them!

These all seem like little things, but in reality each little thing adds up quickly. If everyone makes one small positive change, the end result has a major impact both locally and globally. And to think, all of this from just a little change at home or in the office.

Implement A Paper Reduction Program

There are countless strategies that can be used to reduce the amount of paper consumed in any office setting. The more ways you reduce paper consumption, in coordination with the use of recycling containers, will ultimately lower costs and your company’s carbon footprint. Here are just a few ideas to get you started with a paper reduction program:

• Enable double-sided printing on company printers and copiers; invest in printers and copiers with this capability whenever you buy a new piece of equipment.
• Don’t use cover sheets on faxes; you can call ahead or send an email to give advance notice of a fax.
• Use light-weight paper which has a lesser environmental impact.
• If your company uses direct mailers, adopt a design that does not require envelopes, like fold and staple mailers.
• Periodically go through your mailing list and remove duplicate and out of date entries.
• Allow for internal memorandums and documents to circulate with minor, legible hand corrections instead of printing a new revision after every change.
• When at all possible, use email and voice message to communicate rather than paper.

Strategically Place Recycling Bins Where They Will Do The Most Good

The paperless office is still a long ways off, so in the mean time recycling bins will always be necessary to capture paper waste. Recycling containers today are created in so many different sizes, shapes, and configurations that they can fit into nearly any office space.

Place recycling bins near every copier and community printer where paper is generated the most. Smaller clip-on recycling containers can be added to personal waste bins in every office as well. Conference rooms and communal areas should also have recycling bins to catch waste. In order to capture and combine all the different source of paper waste, larger, multi-container recycling containers are ideal for pick-up by your municipal or private waste haulers.

Waste Wise Products carries a full line of recycling bins to meet any and all of your needs.

Small Office Recycling Solutions And Recycling Bins

Smaller offices and businesses are seemingly always in a cash crunch, so it is understandable that there might be some resistance to green changes. However, there are plenty of solutions for the smallest of offices. Combine your green efforts with neighboring offices in your building or complex. Ask if you can share recycling bins and dump your paper waste into a neighbor’s recycling containers. Plus, many of the paper reduction techniques only require a change in behavior without a financial investment.

Overall, there are countless ways to reduce paper waste, utilize recycling containers and recycling bins, and foster a green workplace.

Cutting Trash Costs With Recycling Bins

The use of recycling bins has been shown to result in drastic reductions in trash collection and removal costs. For every pound of garbage that is placed in recycling bins instead of trash cans means your company pays for less garbage removal.

Companies that offer recycling containers already have markets for those materials, which means they will empty recycling bins for far less than companies that must pay disposal fees for trash once it is collected. There are several ways of collecting these materials. Most people are familiar with bins for recycling paper, plastic, and cans. The fastest and simplest method is to use single stream recycling containers, in which everything is thrown and the sorting occurs elsewhere.

Energy Efficiency Is Advantageous

Other ways in which your association can benefit from going green include the use of more energy efficient equipment and facilities. Energy efficient windows and doors, for example, can easily pay for themselves, according to the Department of Energy, within only five years as a result of reduced energy consumption. Rather than wasting money repairing inefficient equipment, it often makes more sense to invest in more durable, efficient equipment.

Very often, your power company can provide you with an infrared thermography audit, which uses specialized cameras to spot heat loss areas. For larger, production oriented companies, a pollution audit is a good idea. If your energy company does not offer these services, there are many private firms that do. Every little action adds up to big results over time. Steps such as using waterless hand sanitizer can all but eliminate bathroom waste. Replacing wasteful hand soap dispensers with hand sanitizer can help in the same way.

Increased Goodwill and Public Opinion

Using recycling bins from Waste Wise is only one way to take advantage of the benefits of going green. Your group can look for the many little ways to improve the environment while cutting costs. As employees, volunteers, investors, and visitors see all of these efforts at saving money and the environment, their loyalty and goodwill toward your organization are sure to increase along with your media exposure. These good feelings often lead to increased sales.

A simple phone call is all that is needed to start the ball rolling. The professionals at Waste Wise understand that your time is valuable and that you have better things to think about than waste disposal. Reduced costs and a more community-centric public image can be yours when you start using recycling containers and other environmentally and financially sound products and services from Waste Wise.