Zero Waste Week
Zero Waste Week takes place from the 1st - 7th September 2014 in the UK and here are founder Rachelle Strauss' top 20 tips to help businesses reduce their waste20 tips to reduce waste in your business
- Appoint a waste prevention team to brainstorm ideas, raise awareness and motivate staff
- Take a waste audit - supply clear bin bags for waste for a week and see what people are throwing away. Keep it light-hearted - no blaming!
- Start small - after you've done your waste audit, choose one more waste stream you could recycle
- Choose recycled products - such as paper - to close the loop and increase demand for recycled items
- Ask suppliers to take back bulk packaging for re-use
- Provide reusable cups and glasses for staff rather than disposable ones
- Reuse incoming packaging such as boxes for outgoing orders and envelopes for sending internal mail
- Use concentrated cleaning products
- Challenge staff to pack a zero waste lunch rather than going to a supermarket and buying packaged foods
- Or, organise a pot luck lunch
- Set all printers to print double sided and switch to draft quality where possible
- Get your business off mailing lists to avoid junk mail
- Use refillable printer cartridges and rechargeable batteries
- Set up a Terracycle brigade for disposable biros and other 'non-recyclable' products
- Start a community garden and compost heap for your tea bags, coffee grounds and fruit cores
- Donate old furniture to organisations such as Green Furniture http://www.greenfurniture.org.uk/
- Hold a stationery amnesty - a 'no questions asked' drop off point for staff to return excess stationery
- Recycle mobile phones, toner and printer cartridges and light bulbs for a charity
- Put recycling bins next to printers and photocopiers to serve as a friendly reminder
- Set up a carrier bag sharing point - it saves staff each coming back to the office with a new disposable bag!