Office Recycling

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 I have said here before that I believe that climate changes are regulated much more heavily by natural forces than by things we do.  While I do not agree with the government trying to impose things like cap and trade that will hurt the economy, I do think it is important to try to conserve our resources.  I am all for recycling and trying to have more energy efficient cars and appliances.

The company I work for has a number of sustainability initiatives.  It is one of the reasons that I like working for them.  Throughout our building we have segregated receptacles for paper, cans & bottles, and garbage that can't be recycled.  Under each of our desks we had a waste basket and a recycling bin for paper.  Our pantry area has cups made from recycled paper. We even try to have products in our stores that emphasize sustainability and we have efforts to reduce packaging waste with our suppliers.  

This week, they added som,ething to our office sustainability initiatives that I am not sure will work out very well.  The concept itself is OK, it is just the execution that I feel is somewhat lacking.  As I said, we have had a blue recycling bin along with a waste basket under our desks.  This week, they removed the waste basket from under our desk and added two small bins that fit inside our blue recycling bin, one bin for cans and bottles and one for garbage.

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I like the idea of adding the small bin for cans and bottles.  It makes it easier to recycle if I have a soda at my desk.  The bin for the garbage, not so much.  It is about 1/8 the size of the previous waste basket.  Since I usually filled about 1/3 to 1/2 of my old waste basket on a given day, it does not take long for the mini bin to get full. A cup of coffee and an energy bar wrapper and that bin is already starting to overflow.  We have a couple larger trash cans in the pantry areas of our floor, but they fill up fairly quickly.  I imagine that they will fill up much quicker with each desk having smaller individual trash bins.

I think a better idea would have been to keep the individual waste baskets and to add the bin for the cans and bottles to the existing recycling bin.  I confess that on those times when I have a soda at my desk that I usually would place it in the waste basket rather than find a can and bottle receptacle elsewhere on the floor, so that extra bin come in handy.

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• Green Habits that Cost Nothing (talkingaboutgreen.com)
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• Put your recycling routine on steroids (goerie.com)