Small business owners might feel they have enough to deal with while running a business to bother with sustainable habits such as recycling. While large businesses can have a greater impact on the environment and sustainability than smaller ones, the environmental footprints of small businesses still add up. Learn some important tips to help small businesses build recycling programs so that you can start reducing your business’s environmental impact.
Create a Recycling Strategy
The first step to improving your business’s recycling efforts is to identify your goals and create a strategy for meeting them. Examine how your company currently approaches recycling and build from there. If your business doesn’t participate in recycling at all, this gives you a very clear starting point. If your community doesn’t provide recycling collections, contact your local waste hauler and inquire about third-party recycling pickups. Once you have your strategies outlined, be sure to educate your entire staff about these upcoming recycling changes to ensure everyone takes part.
Appoint a Recycling Supervisor
Small businesses benefit from a smaller and more organized staff, which makes it easier to collaborate and get everyone on board. You might find it easier to appoint one manager as your recycling supervisor to ensure your employees follow the new strategy. It also helps to designate someone to collect the recyclables and transfer them to a larger outdoor bin when your everyday bins are full. Otherwise, your recyclables will start to pile up, and your employees could start contaminating the recycling by throwing items into the trash instead.
Offer Incentives for Good Habits
Track your recycling strategy’s progress and monitor your employee’s new recycling habits. You can cement these positive habits by rewarding employees for their recycling efforts. Whether you offer a free product or custom merch item to the employee who recycles the most or simply commend them at the next meeting, positive reinforcement can help encourage recycling habits further.
When more and more small businesses start to chip in, they can have a significant impact on recycling and sustainability. If you’re trying to encourage your small businesses to be better about recycling, choose the right recycling bins and follow these tips to start your own recycling program.
