Commercial and Industrial
Waste Reduction

Reducing waste in the office lessens your business’ environmental impact and improves the bottom line. The following suggestions, ranging from small steps for employees to take to major improvements in manufacturing, should give you ideas on how to minimize waste in your workplace.

Ten Tips for Reducing Waste at Work:

1. Use less paper. Conserve the amount of paper your office uses by printing on both sides of a page. If you have a hard time remembering to print on both sides, make this your default setting. Another clever trick: change your margins to 0.75 in. instead of the standard 1.25 in. to fit more words on the page.
2. Reduce lunch waste. Consider dining in the restaurant instead of ordering takeout. You will get away from the office and not have to eat out of Styrofoam. Brown bagging it? Instead of using the notoriously disposable brown paper and plastic bags, adopt a reusable lunch box and plastic containers for a waste free lunch from home.
3. Conduct a waste audit. Figuring out what you really throw away can give you ideas on what you need to reduce. Hamilton County manufacturers can receive a free Waste Assessment through the District. For more information visit: www.hcdoes.org/SWMD/Businesses/wasteassess.html.
4. Drink from a reusable mug or water bottle. Many coffee shops will give you a discount if you use your own mug and after your caffeine fix you have nothing to throw away.
5. Send electronic newsletters. Keep customers informed and save a few trees by sending your newsletters through email instead of paper copies.
6. Deconstruct instead of demolish. When renovating or building new consider reclaiming building materials that would traditionally be demolished and disposed. A deconstruction organization, like Building Value LLC, can assist you with deconstruction.
7. Keep emails electronic. Avoid hitting the print button when reading an email; you can just as easily file the information on your computer.
8. Adopt Pollution Prevention (P2) practices. P2 reduces or eliminates waste from manufacturing by modifying production processes. To learn more about P2 and the District’s program that places pollution prevention college interns with manufacturers, visit www.hcdoes.org/SWMD/Businesses/P2program.html.
9. List materials on The Interchange. Our free materials exchange service helps you connect to manufactures that can use your waste as feedstock. Visit www.hcdoes.org/SWMD/Interchange/Interchange.html.
10. Donate office supplies. Several local nonprofits would love to give new life to your unwanted office furniture and supplies. Contact Crayons to Computers www.crayons2computers.org/ about donating office supplies or for a list of nonprofits accepting furniture visit http://www.hcdoes.org/SWMD/Businesses/IndCommRecy.html#furniture .

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