Recycling in the workplace can promote a greener image for your company, support employee satisfaction, and reduce waste management costs. If you’re in the process of organizing an office program for recycling in Atlanta , then read on for tips on getting your staff on board.

Dedicate Time to Training

If your team members don’t fully understand your new office recycling program, then you may have trouble getting them to use it. Also, without the proper training and instruction, your staff may throw trash into the recycling bins or mix up materials, for example, by putting food waste or aluminum cans into a plastics recycling bin. For these reasons, setting aside time for training that is dedicated to how to use the recycling system can be an excellent way to get your team on board with the program. If you’re concerned that starting a multi-stream recycling system for your office will be too great of a leap, then learn if single-stream recycling, in which all recyclable materials are collected together instead of in separate bins, is an option for your office.

Focus on Employee Education

In addition to teaching your staff how to use your office’s recycling system, you can help encourage them to make the most of it by educating them on the benefits of recycling. By informing employees why recycling is important for reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as how it can save the company money, you can provide your team with greater motivation to embrace the new recycling system.

Post Some Helpful Signage

Finally, while training and education are essential for starting a recycling program the right way, you may help encourage long-term adherence among your staff by posting informational signage in your office. For example, you can add posters on or near each recycling bin that describe what materials should be placed in each and what items belong in the waste or compost. Finally, to help encourage employee compliance, consider posting informative signage about how recycling benefits everything from the environment to the company.

Does your company practice recycling in Atlanta? If not, then you may be interested in learning about the benefits that commercial recycling programs offer business owners. Continue reading to learn about the importance of commercial recycling.

Protecting the Environment

Recycling benefits the environment in many ways. By recycling materials instead of throwing them in the waste bin, for example, your company can help reduce the amount of trash sent to local landfills. Also, recycling lessens the demand for raw materials that would otherwise need to be refined or mined. In this way, recycling can help reduce energy needs and the impact of mining and manufacturing on air quality and the environment.

Reducing Operational Costs

Instituting a commercial recycling program for your company is more than good for the environment because you can save on waste collection costs by tossing more of your waste into recycling bins. By using containers for metal, paper, and plastic recycling, you can potentially cut down on the number of dumpsters or trash pickups that your company requires.

Improving Resource Efficiency

When companies begin a recycling program, it’s common for areas of unnecessary waste to come to light. By paying more attention to the type and amount of materials that you use and adjusting your practices, your company may be able to spend less money on supplies and waste collection.

Enhancing Company Image

Going green is an excellent way to improve the way that the public views your company. For this reason, you can benefit from conducting an energy audit of your facility and learning where your biggest areas of improvement are. Then, you can enhance your company’s public image by tracking and reporting the progress of your green programs.

Boosting Employee Satisfaction

With the growing awareness of the impact of recycling on the environment, more and more people expect to be able to recycle in the workplace. Beginning recycling programs and similar ventures are excellent ways to improve employee satisfaction by helping them help their environment.

Apartment buildings generate a lot of trash, and without an effective recycling program in place, much of that trash ends up in dumps and landfills. A recycling program allows a building owner and its residents to make a positive impact on the environment by reducing unnecessary waste, and reusing or recycling valuable materials. If you own an apartment building, keep reading for some great tips for establishing a program for recycling in Atlanta .

Find a Local Recycling Center
Your local recycling center can help you develop the best recycling program for your building’s needs. A waste management company that provides recycling services can help you analyze the building’s waste production to determine what materials can be reused, and recycled. They will also help you develop a waste reduction plan that will save you money on waste management costs. The company will provide dumpster rentals, recycling bins, trash pickup and waste disposal services, and can recycle materials at their recycling center.

Set Up Recycling Bins
When you get recycling bins from your recycling center, they should be placed in prominent, easily accessible areas inside or outside of the building. You can even provide residents with small recycling bins for their apartments, to make it easier for them to participate in the recycling program. The recycling bins should be clearly marked, so that residents and visitors understand what materials can be placed inside.

Provide Your Residents With Necessary Recycling Facts
Your recycling program will be ineffective if residents aren’t aware of it, or don’t understand how it works. Provide residents with recycling facts that are clear, and that detail instructions about what materials can be reused and recycled. Most recycling centers handle scrap metal, electronics, paper, plastic, wood, and cardboard recycling. Your recycling center may be able to provide pamphlets or other materials that contain necessary recycling facts and detail their recycling procedures.

When you own a commercial property, you need a comprehensive waste management plan to prevent health and safety hazards, and maintain the appearance of your building. Waste management plans in Atlanta include recycling, dumpster rentals, trash pickup, and waste disposal. These services are necessary for your business to run smoothly and effectively. Here are some tips for choosing the right waste management plan for your commercial property.

Opt for Scheduled Trash Pickup and Waste Disposal
The most convenient element of any waste management program is a scheduled trash pickup and waste disposal service. Your waste management company will allow you to rent a dumpster, which will then be emptied by a trash company on a regular schedule, which is customized to meet your needs. For companies that produce a lot of waste, this service is invaluable, as it ensures that trash and refuse don’t build up and negatively affect the company’s appearance or reputation

Find a Plan That Allows You to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Recycling affords you company the opportunity to reduce waste, and reuse and recycle certain materials. A recycling center can handle paper, electronics, wood, scrap metal, cardboard, plastic recycling. Recycling bins should be placed around the building, and employees should be trained to understand what materials can be reused and recycled. A commercial recycling program benefits your company by cutting waste management costs, and allowing you to become more eco-friendly by reducing the unnecessary production of materials.

Invest In a Waste Analytics Service
Waste analytics is a significant service that can save your company money. A comprehensive waste management plan should include data that can make your waste disposal services much more efficient. This data includes information about your waste production patterns, and the type of waste that is disposed of. Waste analytics services make it easier to schedule your trash pickup and modify your waste disposal practices so that you can reduce waste, reuse salvageable supplies, and recycle valuable materials. All of these tools will lower your waste management costs and have a positive environmental impact.

At Southern Waste and Recycling, we understand that many companies want to reduce the expense of their waste removal services and decrease the amount of trash that ends up in landfills. We’ve made a commitment to helping our customers reach their goals via our Zero Waste to Landfill Initiatives. With more than 50% of the waste near Atlanta being buried in landfills, we believe these initiatives are very valuable.

Taking advantage of our sustainability models will help your company save money and be more eco-friendly. Adopting zero waste policies by recycling and eliminating sources of waste within your company can also make you more attractive to new customers and investors.

Our services allow us to recycle more than 80% of our customer’s waste at our recycling center. We also return usable materials back to the economy while saving landfill space. These programs can save our customers up to 30% on their waste management costs. We can recycle a variety of materials, such as ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, film, pallets, wood crates, electronics, mixed paper, and cardboard. We can even repurpose traditionally non-recyclable materials, such as food waste.

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” is an important mantra to keep in mind, but it is also important that you remember that not everything can be recycled. Recycling rules typically vary by city or area, and certain waste materials cannot be taken in; search the Internet to find out about your local recycling rules so you can make sure that the waste you recycle is indeed recyclable. It is also important to look out for companies that encourage you to participate in their recycling programs, despite the fact that their programs are still harmful to the environment . If you want to practice optimal commercial and industrial waste management techniques in order to keep your business environmentally friendly, the first step is always staying informed.

Reuse Creatively
Once you determine which items cannot be recycled, consider the first two aspects of the mantra: reduce and reuse. Avoid purchasing and using unrecyclable products in favor of greener alternatives. If you do decide to use products that cannot be recycled, consider how you can repurpose them before making the purchase.

· Build more sustainable products

· Adopt more sustainable processes for packaging & distribution

· Develop a materials management program

· Involve your people

· Measure progress

Each month, we will take a deeper look into each of these components. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you at any time about our commitment to be good stewards of the environment and how we can help you with your own sustainability initiatives. Call us at 866-228-3668 .

Increasingly, our clients and prospective clients are interested in sustainability and operating in a way that is supportive of the environment as well as the communities in which they operate for the long term. With increasing focus from both the public and private sector as well as pressure from end-user consumers to be “more green,” forward-thinking organizations of all shapes and sizes are looking not only for mechanisms to help them be more environmentally sensitive but to follow a model for sustainability that affords them livelihood into the next century. Southern Waste & Recycling clients are interested
in how their policies and operations affect:

· The environment

· Financial performance

· People, locally and globally

Organizations that embrace sustainability find that their efforts yield stronger financial performance and profitability, improved investment from stakeholders and enhanced employee commitment. They also enjoy an improved reputation and increased brand awareness for their products and services because of their sustainability initiatives.

The concept of sustainability is easy to grasp at a high level. But as you get into the nuts and bolts and put theory into practice, this concept becomes more complex. What is the impact on a business’ strategy and day-to-day operations? How will the organization’s stakeholders be affected? How can you measure the impact of your operations, products and services on the environment? How can you improve on a continual basis?

While the specific metrics in what is often called the “sustainability index” ultimately adopted by each organization will be unique, at Southern Waste & Recycling we’ve identified five key factors that we believe are not just worthy of evaluation but merit clear definition and critical assessment (at regular intervals) in order to implement and maintain an effective sustainability program focused on reusing, repurposing and recycling.