Clark County Green Business is hosting a spring workshop series focused on green team engagement. The second event in the workshop series took place April 14 at 8:30am and discussed the benefits of waste prevention. In this event, attendees learned how to properly sort, reduce and target high waste areas at their business.

How can you reduce waste?

The first step is figuring out your company's reasons for wanting to reduce waste. Is it part of your company's culture? Does your company hold sustainability and waste reduction at its core? Are you looking for possible cost-savings opportunities? Knowing these reasons can help you move forward with waste reduction practices at your place of work.

Assess recycling and composting

Once you identify your company's values, you can begin to delve into recycling and composting programs. Start by upgrading waste stations around your business, and make sure recycling and garbage containers are always paired together. Having consistent colors and labels on your waste bins can help lower contamination and increase diversion from the landfill. Typically, recycling is colored as blue, landfill as black, and compost as green. You can find free signs through the Clark County Green Business Program to display at waste stations at your business. Around desks, having a larger recycling bin and a smaller landfill bin, as pictured in Figure 1, works surprisingly well in reducing landfill waste. 

One way to cut back on your company's waste is to reject single use plastics. Ask catering services for reusable serving trays, hang signs in kitchen areas that encourage employees to bring their own plates and mugs, reject plastic utensils and straws, and consider bulk items, like soap, when possible.

To reduce paper waste, switch to cloth towels in bathrooms labeled with the employee's name. If focused on reducing water waste, add faucet aerators and water efficient toilets. With many people working from home, encourage the sharing of digital materials instead of print. At the end of the workday, unplug and turn off monitors to reduce energy use.

Properly sort waste

Sometimes recycling can be confusing, and it can be hard to properly recycle! Knowing how to correctly sort and sharing this knowledge at your workplace will reduce contamination and make sure you're maximizing recycling opportunities. Contact Danielle Womble, by email, Danielle.Womble@WasteConnections.com to request a recycling presentation. For the basics, refer back to the following signs or email info@clarkgreenbiz.com with any questions. 

Do a W.A.S.T.E. walk

A W.A.S.T.E. walk explores different areas of the building and guides you in a waste reduction strategy session. Gather members of your work to walk through your building and notice things that are high sources of waste. This can be anything from K-cups in the kitchen, disposable towels in the bathroom, or high volumes of copy paper at the printer. Once all these high waste areas are observed and noted, combine notes with the other colleagues who did the walk and pick out the top three most important areas to target. Over the remaining three months, put a plan into action on how you can reduce waste in these areas! Be sure to communicate with your green team, coworkers and management before changing anything.

Resources

Waste reduction resources can be found on the Clark County Green Biz website or in the Recycling A – Z Directory. For the link to the recorded event, interest in a waste audit or any questions please email info@clarkgreenbiz.com. Thanks again to Danielle Womble from Waste Connections for presenting at this workshop! The third event in the green team workshop series will be about change and progress tracking. This event will take place on Thursday, May 13, at 8:30am. Register here. We hope to see you there!