Many businesses are trying to reduce their carbon footprint they leave behind and have a more positive impact on the environment. One way to do this is to reduce waste in the workplace so you can have less of an impact. There are some simple ways to do this that can save a lot of resources.

Avoid Single-Use Drink Containers for Visitors

If you have people coming in for meetings, most offices offer water from the water machine in single-use plastic cups. These often don’t find their way to the recycling bin and are instead left on meeting room tables, half-finished, until someone empties them down the sink and throws them away. This wastes water and plastic. Instead, replace them with mugs or glassware. You could have these branded.

Use Water Coolers

This is a great alternative to bottled water. By adding a water cooler to the office, you can offer cold with less plastic waste. Don’t add disposable cups, and give staff reusable water bottles instead.

Recycle Old Printer Cartridges

Instead of throwing out empty printer cartridges, use a recycling service and send them off to be reused, refilled, or recycled. Some companies will even pay for old cartridges, and you can sell toner that hasn’t been used to supplement cash flow.

Bring Lunches in Reusable Containers

This helps to reduce uneaten food waste as well as the waste generated by takeaway food packaging and bags. Paper and paperboard make up a huge amount of the waste generated from most workplaces, which means it isn’t being recycled. If you do have takeout waste, recycle it.

Take Paperless Notes

Instead of taking notebooks into meetings, take a tablet or laptop. Don’t write your notes down by hand, and instead type them out. This reduces paper waste, as notes are usually thrown out after they have been typed up anyway. Typing them to start with saves time, and on paper waste.

Use Both Sides of the Paper, When Printing, Copying, and Writing

Most office printers can be configured to automatically print on both sides, so set any printers in the office to do this if you can. If you do need to take notes on paper, write on both sides so you can get away with using less paper.

Reuse One-Sided Misprints for Scrap Paper or Plain Paper Faxes

Faxes only use one side of the paper, and scrap paper is often needed for quick notes. Staff often grab a new sheet of paper from the pack or out of the printer for this. Store misprints or other waste paper in a box, so people can grab from this instead when they need a piece of paper.

Send Emails Instead of Paper Memos

Paper notes are a waste, so send emails for as much of your communication as you can. Email is ideal for communication within and outside of the office, as you have a record of everything that has been said, whereas paper memos can easily be lost.