I can make a difference!!

[the.fee.fairy]

I've got a new thing to do at work. I would say its a new job, but its not paid...

I'm the Environmental Co-Ordinator.

Has anyone else done this kind of thing? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who's got their company to one of the ISO levels (we're going for 140001).

How do i get other employees motivated to recycle and 'get more environmentally friendly'? The upper echelons are easy, i just convince them that a few changes save the company money and they're all over it like a rash...

[Helsbells]

The catering company I used to work for was going for an ISO thingy. They brought in a paper recycling box and we were told how many trees were being saved by us recycling the paper. That was good.
The main thing is to make things easy for people cos people are lazy generally.

[Thomzo]

How about a little incentive to appeal to their lesser nature? If you are saving money by recycling, how about offering a prize of some sort to the people who recycle. Sort of pop-a-can-in-the-recycling-bin-and-take-a-raffle-ticket? Or make it a bit more general, half of all the savings each month go into a raffle for all staff? It might be a bit more difficult to calculate though.

Make it easy. Put the recycling bins where everyone can see them. Where I work we don't have bins by our desks. We have to take all our rubbish to the recycling centres. It removes the temptation of bunging everything in the bin by the desk.

Sounds interesting.

Zoe

[pumpy]

Hi Fee, in my experiance, ISO's are generally about methods(dotting the I's & crossing the T's), regarding getting the correct procedures,etc, in place. As to other employees, i've always thought that anything which was explained properly, & made sense, has always been enough incentive for their participation.

[the.fee.fairy]

Thanks guys

Zoe, we're taking away the bins at some point from under the desks and creating waste collection areas so that people can sort and recycle their rubbish there.

First waste audit tomorrow!

[Penny Lane]

If I was sorting out my husbands office I'd put recycling bins every 20 yards!
One of the women he works with has actually said she won't recycle her paper and cans because the bin is too far (at the end of the office), this also applies to her home life!!
Good luck to you Fee!

[Uller]

My office removed bins from under desks some time last year. We now have red bins (food waste) and green bins (everything else) dotted around the offices. Our recycling contractor will take everything except food waste and sort it for us - we don't even have to know what can be recycled or not. Despite that, I am often digging cardboard, paper and drinks cans out of the red bins and putting them in the green! Not perfect, but almost everyone started talking about what can and can't be recycled and we must have reduced our rubbish considerably.

We also removed disposable cups from our coffee stations and bought loads of mugs and glasses - means the dishwasher is used more frequently, but we have reduced waste a lot.

Now we just need to work on people switching off printers, monitors etc when they go home.....

[red]

perhaps you could make it competitive between departments?

[Wombat]

Good one Fee!

See if you can get a measure of some description built into the supervisors objectives and then let them motivate the troops for you. How about holding a lunchtime screening of "an inconveneint truth" or other some such video?

Nev