How to encourage recycling in the office

Jul 16th 2024

More businesses are being encouraged to embrace recycling and become more sustainable in response to environmental fears for the future.

Even a small business can generate a large amount of waste, with paper being a prime example of a consumable that can quickly build up around the office.

Statistics show many UK businesses have yet to fully embrace recycling. Sadly, as a nation, we have yet to meet the 50% recycling rate set by the government for 2020.

The average national recycling rate stands at 47%, with Wales being the only one of the home nations to exceed the target with a 56% overall recycling rate. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all missed the target, with recycling rates of 44%, 41% and 48% respectively.

How much waste do businesses produce?

An estimated 40 million tonnes of industrial and commercial waste is generated UK-wide annually, with the vast majority (84%) coming from England.

Government statistics have revealed many sources of commercial waste were reduced during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 due to people working from home during the lockdowns. This gave a false impression of how well we were doing as a nation in terms of sustainability.

Sadly, in the ensuing years, recycling figures have dipped again, due to most people being back at work, but failing to up their game in terms of recycling. The latest statistics, released in January 2024, revealed England’s commercial recycling rate had inexplicably fallen by a hefty 6% compared with the same period in 2023.

The most recycled products in offices are paper and cardboard, which have achieved a total recycling rate of between 70% and 80%, according to government data. However, with 9.9 million tonnes of paper being used annually in the UK, failing to recycle even 20% of it means almost two million tonnes are still going to landfill.

Businesses are being urged to do more, as many things can be done to increase recycling levels with very little effort.

Money saved by recycling

The benefits of recycling stretch far beyond saving the planet’s resources, although this is its main purpose, of course. Recycling not only helps the planet to preserve natural resources for future generations, but it also benefits each individual business in financial terms.

Each year, the UK government increases the Landfill Tax, which was introduced in 1996 to encourage businesses to dispose of waste more sustainably. The cost of disposing of one tonne of commercial waste at landfill increased from £102.10 to £103.70 in April 2024.

Businesses can reduce their waste management costs by introducing sustainable waste disposal methods at work. It’s possible to recycle many office items such as wastepaper, cardboard, packaging, computer equipment, mobile phones and used printer ink cartridges, which can help the environment, as well as your bottom line.

Tips for recycling in the office

Recycling in an office doesn’t need to be difficult and as an office manager, it’s important that you encourage employees to take part in an ongoing sustainability programme.

Adopting a recycling policy in the office enables us to reduce our ecological footprint significantly by changing behavioural habits. Every business can do their but towards a sustainable future.

Offices have great opportunities to save paper in a world of digital communication. While paper will always be needed for certain applications, consider where you can use online tools instead. For example, digital collaboration tools can help managers to communicate with the team in real time, rather than sending out memos or meeting minutes on paper. For documents that must be printed, use double-sided printing to use less paper.

For e-waste recycling, liaise with local service providers who specialise in the disposal of electronic waste to ensure old laptops, printers, desktop computers and other electronic devices don’t add to the burden on landfill sites.

The management of an office doesn’t just mean ensuring the workflow is efficient and that your employees’ health and safety are well looked after. It also means devising policies to adhere to other requirements, such as operating sustainably as a company.

What can offices recycle?

As well as the obvious materials such as paper, cardboard and electronic waste, there are many other things that can be recycled such as light bulbs and batteries, for example.

When you recycle cardboard, this doesn’t just mean things like new printer ink boxes or packaging from the delivery of supplies. If you worked late on an urgent project and ordered a pizza takeaway to the office, don’t just leave the empty boxes and drinks cups in the bin next to your desk. Pop them in the recycling bins instead.

When you’re drinking aluminium cans of drinks, or water from glass and plastic bottles, these should always be recycled, as should any trade newspapers or magazines you have delivered to the office.

Is your office collecting food waste? If not, it’s something you should consider by adding an organics stream to the recycling programme. Collecting and processing compostable materials properly means they can be repurposed to help cultivate crops and revive land that is deficient in nutrients.

The materials to collect include food waste, paper napkins and towels, tea bags, ground coffee and compostable cutlery and plates.

How to encourage employees to recycle

While most businesses as an entity have a recycling policy, should there be rules in an office to target individual employees? The general consensus seems to be focusing on encouragement, rather than punitive action for not recycling, to maintain good relations with the workforce.

This can include providing centralised recycling and waste stations, rather than a small bin underneath every individual desk. That way, people become more aware of what they’re throwing away if they have to walk to a waste station and decide what goes where.

Discourage employees from bringing single-use food packaging into the office by giving them a personal reusable lunch bag and utensils. The aim is to persuade as many people as possible to eat a litter-less lunch to reduce daily waste.

While it’s not feasible to tell employees they can’t bring a takeaway coffee into the office, encourage them to stop using disposable cups. Most cafes and takeaways will fill up a customer’s own reusable coffee cup, which can be washed afterwards. The average office worker throws away 500 disposable cups every year, so this could make a massive difference to your recycling figures.

Try setting up an upcycling station on the premises, so that employees with old mobile phones, laptops, staplers or small items of office furniture can leave them there in case someone else can make use of them. Before ordering new office supplies, it can be protocol to check the upcycling station to see if there’s something that can be repurposed.

Here at BE Offices’ serviced office space, we operate a zero waste to landfill policy and provide recycling points throughout our premises for easy recycling.

Renting space at our serviced office in London means clients can support the recycling schemes by disposing of waste wisely. In addition, our in-house cleaning company means you can rely on us to keep your workspace rubbish-free, clean and hygienic every day.