We aim to produce as little waste from our offices as possible. Where we do produce it, we want to make sure we send as little as possible to landfill.
Since 2005/06 we have reduced the amount of waste we send to landfill each year by 158,000 kilograms – a 77 per cent reduction. That’s the equivalent of around 125 small cars.
How have we done it?
- We have reduced the amount of paper we use, by setting a paper usage target, investigating why some areas of the business use more paper and automatically setting our printers to print double sided.
- We provide recycling facilities for as many types of waste as possible. We recycle the usual things – paper, cardboard and plastic. But we also recycle our electronic waste such as IT equipment (we do so securely!), CDs and DVDs, batteries;
- We make it easy for our staff to recycle by having clearly labelled colour coded bins. This makes sure the right waste goes in the right recycling bin;
- We’ve stopped our food waste going to landfill by getting it collected and turned into energy through anaerobic digestion.
What next?
We want to send as little of our waste to landfill as possible but we also want to minimise the amount of waste we produce in the first place. We will continue work with our suppliers to look at how we can reduce waste at source, such as cutting down on the packaging they send us. We will also work with our staff to make sure everyone working for us only uses what they really need to. One of our big sources of waste is paper and we continue to work hard with our staff to reduce the amount that we use and discard. Last year we used 20 per cent less office paper than we did in 2010/11 and we will continue to work towards printing only what we need.
