Business Services
Going green
How to start a recycling program at your company
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Cleveland | December 2008
Starting a recycling program could be easier
than you think.
Jim Dietz, co-owner and
president of Lake Erie
Graphics Inc., says that
CEOs may be surprised at
how simple it is to get the
ball rolling on a program to
collect plastic, paper and
aluminum cans for recycling
at your company — and that
it can benefit your company
financially.
Dietz’s company, a 35-employee commercial printer located in Brook Park,
has implemented numerous
green initiatives, including
picking up its customers’
paper recycling as an added,
free service. He says the first
step to starting an office
program is to make it easy
for your employees to recycle by allowing them to keep
containers in their cubes
and by placing a larger collection container in an easy-to-reach spot.
“Instead of walking to the
trash can to throw it away,
you put the recycling bin
right next to it so they drop
it in there,” he says. “I don’t
know how much easier it
could get.”
You can also educate
employees about the impact
they’re having on the environment if they’re not recycling. Both www.earth911.org
and www.epa.gov/recyclecity
have a wealth of information
on the effects of not recycling and offer ways you can
motivate your staff to take
part.
“There’s a lot of material
on the Internet that talks
about what’s going to happen to that product if it makes it to the landfill, if it
doesn’t get recycled,” he
says. “I think those are
things you need to educate
your employees about —
‘Look, this bottle is going to
last 100 years or whatever
in the landfill.’ If you can
display that, give them
something to think about, I
think that has a big
impact.”
Dietz says that a problem
some companies encounter
is trying to find somewhere
to take the recyclables.
“So, whether somebody
takes it home at night, takes
it to their community where
they accept that or if there is [somewhere] local — you
see the containers where you
can drop off your waste
paper and your cardboard at
churches or schools,” he
says.
And if you can’t find anyone at your company to handle the program — or if you
want to reward a volunteer
for taking charge — paying
someone a little extra could
go a long way.
“That’s a good incentive,”
he says. “To find somebody
that will take it on as a
challenge, and ... you take
this home, you leave an
hour early. There’s a lot of
ways to encourage people.
It probably relates to what
it is that ... motivates them.
Is it $20 in their paycheck,
or is it an extra hour of
vacation? There’s a lot of
ways you could do it to
motivate someone to get
involved.”
Aside from the impact
you’ll have on the planet,
recycling can also benefit
your company financially.
“The easiest thing is to
look at the waste can and
see what’s in there and start
working on how to reduce
that trash,” he says. “There’s
a benefit there, too, if you
reduce your Dumpster
waste or the amount that
you’re paying a company to
haul it away. Then just try
to figure out, what can we
do to recycle this? Where
we can take the paper?’
Maybe get the employees
involved and say, ‘Hey, we’d
like to do this to benefit the
environment and all our
kids and future.’ Then,
maybe, let the employees
come up with the ideas.”
Watchful eye
Now that you have a recycling
program in place, you want to make
sure it runs efficiently and that
everyone is doing their part. With
these tips from www.earth911.org,
you can monitor progress to evaluate cost-effectiveness, employee
participation and environmental
impact.
- Provide feedback to employees. By providing feedback, you
can share successes, progress
and problems with your company’s program.
- Use memos, newsletters or
companywide e-mails to distribute updates or milestones
about the program.
- Publicize the quantity your
company recycles.
- Calculate/distribute disposal
cost savings based on the
decrease of office waste.
- Survey employees/departments to identify program problems and improvements.
- Post informative articles on
recycling, source reduction,
reuse and/or the environment to
further educate staff.
- Include information on recycling program participation in
new employee orientation and
the company handbook.
You can also show how successful and creative your program is by promoting your company’s efforts outside of your
business.
- Apply for various local, state
or federal awards, such as the
Paper Recycling Awards.
- Become an EPA WasteWise
business to further improve
your program.
- Get involved in local, state
and/or national recycling, environmental or industry-related
organizations.
- Distribute press releases on
your program to local newspapers.
HOW TO REACH: Lake Erie Graphics Inc., (216) 265-7575 or www.lakeeriegraphics.com
