Re-use not refuse
Did you know that each tonne of paper which is recycled saves 17 average-sized trees plus their habitat and wildlife? That government reports predict that we will run out of available landfill sites by the end of this decade? That waste typically costs companies 4.5% of their turnover? Using environmentally-friendly office products and recycling wherever possible not only saves natural resources but makes economic sense too.
By Sara Goodwins
The paperless office is almost here!
Electronic communications have minimised paper memos, letters, manuals, etc. But about 70% of office waste still consists of paper. Recycled paper used to look like cardboard and act like blotting paper, but now you'd be pushed to distinguish it from un-recycled equivalents. Several companies including Green Spectrum (www.greenspectrum.co.uk), Paperback (www.paperback.coop) and Recycled Paper Supplies (http://rps.gn.apc.org) specialise in supplying recycled stationery. Most office suppliers also offer a small selection.
Some recycled paper products such as napkins, washroom towels and toilet rolls are often very economically priced as well as being environmentally friendly - see www.euroffice.co.uk. If you do need a paper copy then print on both sides of the paper; most equipment can be set for double-sided printing/copying. And if you're doing multiple copies remember to re-set to single-copy printing as the next user may not check. Paper recycling is now commonplace at work, but make sure you have enough recycling bins, that staff know what they're for, and that they're emptied regularly.
Canny consumables
Packaging needn't be wasteful or expensive. Padded bags can be reused, card from the back of notepads makes good envelope stiffeners and recycled corrugated card is as good as bubble wrap. You can even turn waste into something useful; paper from the shredders makes good packaging around boxed items. It's cheap, available on site and much greener than the polystyrene chips so often used.
Less obvious consumables such as printer cartridges, pens and light bulbs can all be environmentally friendly. Low-energy bulbs save fuel bills by reducing energy consumption. They last about eight times as long as standard bulbs and only cost about five times the price. Reconditioned printer cartridges are available from many IT suppliers and can be recycled again once empty. Green Agenda (www.greenagenda.com) even pays for used ones.
Did you know that Remarkable (www.remarkable.co.uk) makes pencils out of recycled vending cups, pens out of the plastic covers of computer printers and mouse-mats out of old tyres? Use pens which are biodegradable or, better still, can be refilled; fountain pens are making a comeback and bottled ink is cheap. Staedtler (www.staedtler.co.uk) even makes a refillable highlighter called Textsurfer. If pens are not refillable, make sure that you exhaust what ink there is before throwing them away.
Paperclips can be reused but staples can't. OK they're tiny but it's estimated that the annual weight of discarded staples is about 70 tonnes! Paperlock staple-less staplers lock sheets of paper together by cutting tiny holes and folding back the resulting tines; they're available from The Green Stationery Company (www.greenstat.co.uk). The firm supplies a huge range of environmentally-friendly office equipment including letter trays made from juice cartons, OHP films made from clear plastic bottles, pin boards made from newsprint and recycled storage boxes where all royalties go to WWF.
Green equipment
Office furniture can be a big expense, particularly for a small business, so try re-using chairs and desks no longer wanted by other companies. Contact Greenworks (www.green-works.co.uk) which finds new homes for unwanted office furniture and equipment. Alternatively, if you're upgrading, donate your old furniture to Greenworks and make sure any new wooden furniture is made from timber accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (www.fsc-uk.info).
Electrical equipment becomes obsolete so quickly that buying reconditioned is not usually an option for businesses. But check the energy consumption of new equipment; it varies considerably. As well as taking up less space, multi-function equipment (printer/fax/scanner combinations, etc.) uses fewer resources in its manufacture and disposal. Office Green Technologies (www.officegreen.co.uk) recycles all sorts of defunct office equipment, including mobile phones, fluorescent and other bulbs, and IT equipment.
Nowadays there are lots of easy ways for offices to become environmentally friendly. Something as simple as printing on both sides of A4 paper saved one company £4,000 per year. How green is your office?
A freelance writer for over twenty years, the last ten of them full-time, Sara Goodwins has researched and written about a multitude of different topics. She tends to specialise in business and education and her features are regularly published internationally.
