Why Is Reducing Office Waste Important?

How Much Waste Does an Office Generate?

A study covered by The Guardian found that UK offices generate combined waste costs of around £15bn each year. The same study also claimed that while 70% of office waste is recyclable, only 7.5% reaches the recycling facility.

Although the environmental impact of reducing office waste has been well documented, there are an array of other benefits that a waste-efficient ethos can bring to your company.

Below, we’ll highlight the many advantages reducing office waste can have, both for your company and society in general.

– Protect the environment

It goes without saying that any form of waste reduction is positive news for environmental health. By adopting environmentally positive practices like recycling waste, we help build a more sustainable future both for ourselves and future generations.

While environmental issues are widely framed through the lens of planet-wide concerns like climate change and global warming, reducing office waste is equally key to the health and safety of your local community.

Reducing your waste output will help prevent pollution, making your local area a cleaner, safer place to live. By becoming part of the solution instead of part of the problem, your company will establish itself as a positive entity within the eyes of the local community.

– Save space in the office

An overlooked but beneficial aspect of reducing office waste is the amount of space it generates. This is particularly true in offices with heavy paper consumption, where substantial room is needed to accommodate filing cabinets, printers, and numerous other pieces of equipment required in a traditional office environment.

By reducing your use of paper and adopting digital filing and storage methods, you will create extra room that you can utilise for other important things. Whether you want to use the space to accommodate extra employees, add additional equipment, or simply create a more spacious office environment, you’ll have more scope than ever to enhance your workspace.

– Reduce your expenditure

While we’ve already established the societal advantages of reducing office waste, building a more resourceful working environment can have a similarly positive effect on the health of your business. Modern advancements in technology have opened up more opportunities to reduce waste than ever before.

Going paperless can have a transformative impact on your office expenditure. With the previously mentioned Guardian article also reporting that the average office worker uses twenty sheets of paper per day, this is one significant cost that can be eradicated by moving your paper-based practices online.

While going paperless may be unfeasible for many offices, you can still save considerable money by taking an economical approach to your paper use. Actions like printing on both sides of the paper may sound trivial, but they instantly reduce the amount of paper waste in your office.

This same resourcefulness can be applied to your energy and water use in the workplace. Energy-wasting traits, like leaving your office lights on after closing, rack up unnecessary costs that could be easily avoided.

By being stricter with your use of paper and other office resources, you will reduce your expenditure and have more cash available to concentrate on growing your business!

What are my legal requirements regarding office waste?

Any office must adhere to certain legal requirements when it comes to managing waste. As covered in this article, you must ensure that you prevent, reuse, recycle or recover waste whenever possible.

You must also ensure that any waste is stored securely and is disposed of in a way that does not cause harm to the environment. This is particularly true when it comes to discarding larger items like furniture and electrical equipment from your office.

While some offices choose to manage their waste by themselves, there are professional companies that you can hire to help ease the stress of waste removal. Clear It Waste is a company that offers professional waste removal services to offices across London.

As a fully licensed waste management company, we are experts in the legal requirements of waste removal. We provide a number of services, including furniture removal and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling, allowing us to dispose of your office waste in a timely, efficient and eco-friendly fashion.

Why should I choose Clear It Waste for waste removal?

Clear It Waste has an array of waste removal services designed to take the burden away from you.

You should choose us for your office clearance services for the following reasons: