Can You Offer a Recycling Program?

If you have a product-based business, how much waste are you creating when that product is no longer usable? I’m not talking about waste from the manufacturing process – I’m talking about the waste from the packaging, obsolete product, etc.

This will vary from business to business. For example, someone who sells heads of lettuce with have very little waste, while someone who sells computers will have tons of waste. You likely fall somewhere in the middle.

This week, Staples announced incentives to their ink and toner cartridge recycling program. Can your waste be recycled?

Sometime people just need a reminder. You can place bins at your location to allow people to drop off items that can be recycled. Not every town has weekly recycling pick up of all items, so you’re giving people the opportunity to do the right thing. You can even give a small incentive, depending on the item, since you may be able to make back that money by taking aluminum, glass, etc. to the scrap yard.

Recycling = good. If you can, start a program to encourage it.