I want to get my office to start recycling, how do I go about htis?

Question

We use a lot of paper that usually gets thrown away and we also use a ton of soda cans. I cringe everytime I throw one away in the regular garbage and I wanted to make a suggestion at the next meeting about starting to recycle. I don't know how I can go about this. Do I have to call a recycling center and get the proper containers and who do I call to pick them up or do we have to drop them off? I am in NYC (Chelsea area) are there any centers in the city? Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful, thanx!

Answer 1

It seems like there are a lot of suggestions already.  It may be a while before you can get a big project going for your whole office. But keep in mind, everything that is kept out of the landfill matters.  So you can start by just taking your own cans home to recycle with your home stuff. I'll bet there are some people already doing that.  Also encourage your friends as work to do the same.

Answer 2

How about bringing back the retired people ?

Answer 3

You could start giving boxes to your office mates and tell them what it is for. Or you could hold up a fast meeting with your office mates and tell them what you wanted them to do and tell them the advantages of recycling. Provide them with boxes wherein they can put the scrap papers they have for recycling and for cans, another box will do or another trash bin but only specifically for cans.

Answer 4

Contact your local council environmental services department, if like my local council they should have a person specifically employed to help businesses with recycling.

Good luck

Answer 5

sorry no suggestions..i live in tx..but i really like ur plan..did u know 54% of the trash in landfills is paper?..then its yard waste..such recyclable stuff...well hope ur plan works!

Answer 6

This isn't easy is it?  I've been trying to get my office to do the same thing for years.  I found this website that can help with the bottles and cans part. We use Shred-It document shredding services, so most of our paper wast goes into the shredding container. I know the shredding companies recycle the shredded paper, so maybe you could look into that.   Take a look at this website also.  It might give you some ideas.  

http://www.bottlesandcans.com/start.php

Answer 7

You "might" be opening a can of worms here. First off, what type of office set-up do you have? Are you a large company? A small company? Are you in an office park or does your company have it's own free standing building?

Just getting hold of a lot of those little blue recycling trash containers for each desk won't cut it. You've got to make sure the cleaning crew is on board with this, because if they empty it all together it will be a waste of your time. If you are in an office park type of building, you need to contact the building management. If you are in your company's own building, you need to have someone who represents your company (you, maybe?) contact the recycling company and get the proper parking lot containers put in place. For non-profit organizations this is usually free, but for businesses there IS a charge.

I am in Texas, in commercial property management. We use Abitibi Consolidated. I don't know anything about the companies in your area.