How much waste does your business produce? Most operations have cut down on the levels they produced even give years ago, but there is always room to do more - saving the planet and adding to your bottom line in the process.

Reducing waste has becoming a compelling concern, both from an environmental and a cost saving perspective. Watch money drop off the bill for costly waste haulage and disposal while protecting the world that you operate it, demonstrate socially conscious leadership to customers, staff and financiers and firmly establish your work towards corporate social responsibility - reducing the threat to our health and our planet by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting waste streams. There are so many benefits to becoming more environmentally conscious no matter the size of your business and it's plans for growth. Making a change doesn't even have to be complex - very simple, small changes in multiple behaviours can add up over time into a big difference. Develop a waste reduction strategy for your business and reap the benefits on every front.

Develop A Waste Audit

Putting in place a thorough waste audit for your business is a great idea, and something which should be periodically reviewed and updated to take account of any new developments as well. Make supply chain sustainability by evaluating business areas, identifying specific waste problems, and developing an action plan for dealing with them. What consumables do you use which could be diverted from landfill? Are compostable alternatives available for what you need? How is staff waste disposed of? Could you look into ideas such as Mill Size Balers to compact plastics waste such as delivery packaging, or even simply placing labelled recycling bins in staff breakout areas? Where you do already have recycling facilities in place, are they labelled clearly enough? Could you add template posters showing what goes where? You should also take the change to evaluate how full your balers, compactors, recycling bins and regular skips are before collection. As each pick up incurs charges, if you focus on increasing recycling rates you can often decrease the frequency of collection and save some money.

Think About Composting

Biodegradable waste disposal is easy to manage and has an immediate benefit, as organic waste tends to be heavy and therefore costly to remove. Depending on the sector in which your business operates, switching to plates, forks and napkins which are compostable or recyclable can save extra money as well. Hundreds of office buildings are now catching onto composting as well, with a service now available in most major locations. If a composting facility is available within around 50 miles of where you are based, then it tends to be better financial for your business than opting for landfill.

Switch To A Filtered Water Tap

Installing water filtration systems and a tap which provides instant filtered water in each staff area along with some glasses can really help eliminate the environmental impact of disposable plastic water bottles and cups. The amount of petroleum used in the manufacture of water bottles alone in the U.S could power a million cars for a whole year! Bottled water also costs 2,000 times more than tap water, so doing your bit by eliminating disposable plastic use in your business or co-working space is key.