Business Recycling ♻️

Business Recycling ♻️: Waster is also keen to promote new ways for businesses to boost their recycling (reducing general waste contents) and also decrease their costs for waste management.

At the end of the day, having a double benefit such as reducing costs and also boosting environmental performance is a great outcome. We often promote commingled recycling as a business recycling collection service (i.e. the yellow recycling bins for bottles, cans, plastic bottles etc) as an excellent method to reduce cost and boost recycling. In this part of the blog, we will cover the latest NSW Government announcement on paying a rebate on cans and bottles through a new scheme.

>Download Now: Free PDF Business Owners Guide To Commingled Recycling Bin Services

A little bit about how Waster can help you

Waster provides low-cost waste and business recycling bins to small and medium Australian businesses (such as Sydney business recycling collection). We provide all your required business recycling collection services such as commingled recycling, cardboard bins, confidential paper destruction, etc.

Check out your options and prices online today with confidence in the convenience of our flexible 30-day agreements.

To see some good business recycling tips, you can check out our flowchart below in a video on how a cafe can almost go zero waste. You can achieve very high rates of business recycling. This can also help divert rubbish ending up in a landfill.

We highlight how a cafe can save significant amounts of money by using smart business recycling bins. Although this is specific to a cafe, it can be applied to pretty much any business recycling plan.

Explaining business recycling and collection

First and foremost, you have to know what business recycling is. We will define it here.

Business recycling mainly means being more responsible at work and dealing with your waste in an environmentally friendly way.

But it also means any online resource that can help any workplace become more environmentally aware. According to Planet Ark, which can certainly help in recycling and collection efforts, business recycling can give you options for 90 materials. So, you should definitely check the website out for more information.

Benefits

You might be thinking: what is the purpose of recycling in a business environment? Can it help in any way?

The answer to that is yes. Business recycling, of course, can help you save money. It will give you a background of what you should and shouldn’t throw in the general waste bin. As a result, it saves you more money. A heavier general waste bin will cost you more, so investing in a recycling bin will help you save money leaps and bounds.

Another benefit for recycling businesses is it being recognised as being “green”. Nowadays, people are becoming more aware of the impact business operations have on the environment. People branding you as a “green business” will certainly be beneficial.

Recycling grants for small businesses

Eligible businesses can get assistance from grants with their recycling efforts. This is another way to strengthen your recycling efforts – free of charge. Here are examples you can check out:

• Business and organisation waste management grants
• Business recycling grants

A new reverse vending initiative in NSW

The New South Wales Government has announced that they will be rolling out a reverse vending machine network for drinks containers, whereby a 10c rebate will be paid for eligible containers. Quoting from the ABC website:

“A new recycling scheme in New South Wales has been hailed by the State Government as the biggest anti-litter initiative in the state’s history.”

“We’re talking about millions of drink containers that litter our streets at the moment, our community will have more opportunity now to do the right thing, to have it be an easy way to do the right thing.”

“More than 800 reverse vending machines will be rolled out across the state, providing customers with a 10 cent refund in exchange for bottles and cans.”

“Most empty 150 millilitres to 3-litre beverage containers will be eligible for a refund, which will be provided in the form of a retail voucher or can be donated to local charities or community groups.”

“If customers prefer cash, they can take the containers to one of 500 collection points instead.”

Insights on business recycling bins and the new Government recycling initiative

Initiatives like this by the NSW Government can really help boost recycling among businesses and the general public.

If a smart business seeks to reduce waste going to landfill and save money, boosting recycling is a really great option.

By choosing the right business recycling bins and implementing business recycling collection, it is possible to really boost your recycling whilst saving significant amounts of money. Business recycling bins can be much cheaper than general waste. For example, a cardboard bin in Sydney can be less than a third of the price of a general waste bin collection.

For more related details, see our blogs on what can be recycled and the possibility of polystyrene recycling.

Also, see our blog on cigarette butt recycling here.

On both a local and global scale

When you are arranging waste management services for your small business, it can sometimes be tempting to think that the changes you make to your business recycling habits and processes do not have any real impact or benefit in the real world. This can be a logical thought process when you consider the negative publicity that the Australian waste and business recycling industry has received in recent months, such as shipping rubbish to Queensland for disposal.

In this part of the blog, we wanted to cover two positive business recycling stories that highlight how small changes in your waste management habits can really have large impacts on a local and even global level that makes you a green business.

How this can make a real change on a local and global level!

In your business or home, we often put stuff in the general waste bin that would be better off in the business recycling bin. These include items such as bottles, cans, cardboard packaging, and plastic bags – all easily recyclable.

The most common reason for doing this is that we often think that it does not really matter.

Two great examples of ongoing projects that aim to show small changes can have big impacts include a plan to end the usage of seemingly innocent plastic drinking straws and another project aiming to charge people for takeaway coffee cups.

The Last Straw is a nicely named project that aims “to end the use of the plastic straws in venues around Australia. We aim to tackle the issue from both sides- encouraging consumers to use less plastic straws and encouraging businesses to give out fewer straws through staff training and information.”

The problem stems from the impact of plastic rubbish on the environment and the impact on sea life:

“There is an alarming disconnect between what’s in our hands and where it comes from, or what it means for the future. A plastic straw in my gin might seem innocent enough, but multiply that by the billions of people that buy billions of drinks across the world every single day, and you start to get an idea of the scale of the problem we’re looking at. That straw I threw away after stirring my drink will outlive me and everyone else on this planet. Unless we do something to change.”

To put the issue in perspective

Alternet.org explains:

“It’s estimated that Americans use 500 million plastic straws every single day. Here’s a scary visual to help comprehend that amount: If you were to connect all those straws together, they would measure two and a half times the circumference of the Earth. That’s just the straws consumed in the United States. And the vast majority of them don’t get recycled.”

Like all types of plastic, these straws hang around for a long time and can cause real pain and danger to wildlife – particularly sea life. See our blog on the problems caused by plastic bags to learn more.

Also, see below for a video showing the impact on a sea turtle. NOTE: This video may be unsuitable for some viewers:

What we can learn here is that saying no to plastic drinking straws or not offering them to customers can have a real benefit.

Another great idea is the growing availability of reusable coffee cups available for takeaway coffees. If there is one thing that Australians love – it is walking with a coffee in hand. Coffee cups are very difficult to recycle. Thankfully, there are numerous excellent options available such as those offered by Keepcup. Check out all their designs and options here.

Conclusion on business recycling

Business recycling should be taken seriously. It can help them save money AND the environment at the same time!

Also, it is sometimes good to remember that making small changes in the way your business operates such as offering straws or takeaway coffee cups in a cafe or restaurant can have real impacts. See our blog on what we can learn from waste management in the cruise industry.

You could offer a discount for reusable cups – or only offer straws if someone requests one?

There are lots of ideas to play with and they all make a difference.

See our blog on what would happen in Australia if we all recycled more.