The Great Big Recycle

hannamint

I am new to this and have never started a thread on here before. However, I really need to get my point across to people on a wide scale. Some of this may sound like pure waffle, but I know that to some of you it will make huge sense.

I'll start by explaining my thoughts over the past few days and why it has led me here.

I work in retail and for weeks and weeks customers have been complaining because there's no packing paper for any of their fragile goods. Why is this? Well because we haven't yet ordered any new paper or wrapping. Then a few days later, i'm now putting all the lovely new stock out, and as i'm doing it, i'm seeing that there's tonnes and tonnes of bubble wrap ending up in the bins outside, most probably ending up in landfill somewhere, whilst my boss upstairs is probably ordering some new bubble wrap.

Okay, i'm not alone in my thought that this is ridiculous, so I start hoarding all the bubble wrap that I come across and hide it under each till. Smart? No. Logical? Yes.

Same day, another instance. I love arts and craft, and was brought up on it. some of the packaging we threw away today had the most awesome colour and it was corrigated!!!! ( I have most likely spelt that wrong) Then I thought ... I wonder how much schools are spending on this exact same stuff?
Yeah okay we recycle paper and card at work, but imagine some kids face if they get this stuff to play with.

more examples

I also found that we now waste millions and millions of little blank white stickers, just because the new printers that go with these stickers no longer print something on them, they print them alternately on the coloured stickers, but leave the white ones clear. What do we do with the leftover white stickies? Bin em.

Coat hangers. We reuse most of these too. However bags and bags full of them still end up in bins from the stock with hangers that come with them rather than our recycled ones.

Okay, now I hear you wondering why I just ranted all that at you. And you're right, I probably didn't need to because you all know this already because of your own situations. I know that my place of work isn't the only place doing this.

So lets change it?

I'm asking all of you just to think really hard about the things we waste or are forced to waste daily, and think again. Like, how many of you would think it was awesome if I sent you an envelope full of these stickers that I waste every day because you'd use them for work files or recipe books?

How many of you work in a play school that's struggling for craft supplies, but it's situated near to a place that constantly bins the stuff you'd love to make into a fridge decoration for mum.

It's common sense, I know this. But if we communicate to one another, maybe we can all start sharing these things? We're all on this site because we care. We can see the world needs change and we're on it.

reems and reems of stickers anyone?

Your thoughts please?

A_fiend_for_life

Hi hannamint, welcome to the board!

How much does the store / shop pay for waste collection? Do they pay according to bin size?

If they are not willing to make savings on packaging is there anyone else that would use it? eg mail order or local online firms.

I read an article or post somewhere on someone collecting cardboard from restaurants shredded it for animal bedding, collected the bedding for his wormeries, used the worms as fish food - sturgeon, and sold caviar back to the restaurants.

hannamint

lol thats awesome. im not sure what they pay for the waste disposal. but there's three massive hefty skips. they dont look like they get emptied a lot, but yeah.
i just think we've lost a lot of this resourcefulness which seems stupid because we probably need it the most now. we've just become accustomed to having it on a plate and plenty of it.

A_fiend_for_life

I'm sure I saw it somewhere else:

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/55/Cardboard-to-caviar-for-green.212666.jp

There's a bigger diagram here:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/biomimicry-design-systems.php

greenbee

Have you put your ideas to your boss? I've always found that selling my green ideas with a clear link to financial benefits has resulted in me being able to do what I like! And you should get credit for your ingenuity and creativity.

I'm sure you can think of more things you can do... offering coat hangers to customers at the checkout, which will recycle them, and potentially save your customers money buying their own; linking up with a local school to provide them with craft materials; freecycling excess that might be useful (I'm sure you'd get takers for bubble wrap, cardboard boxes & coathangers most weeks).

I've recently had to process the contents of a large pile of envelopes at work. But they weren't ordinary envelopes, they were A4 bright yellow tracing-type paper, and have gone to the local primary school for art projects. They'll be wonderful for spring!

I have got rid of old laptop stands and cases from work on freecycle and at car boot sales (for charity) before, rather than see them thrown out.

I also think if we work on the basis of paying forward - proactively giving our unwanted but useful stuff to other people who we know will appreciate it - the world will be a better place. Today I gave all my unwanted nail varnish to a colleague who I know will use it. She was thrilled, and I'd avoided having to choose between it cluttering my house up or feeling guilty about throwing it out!

exlibris

I agree. It just needs a little thought and 'one man's rubbish can become another man's materials' at very little cost.

Before retirement, I worked in an FE College and used to spend about1/2 hr a day sorting through the paper that came from the students' printer. IT told us not to re-use blank sheets that had already been through the printer so I extracted this, any graphics that did not have too much ink on it and anything that could have been in the least bit sensitive and sent it down to the creche for the children to draw on. The bonus was when line drawings came out of the printer which the infants could colour in!

This was with my line-manager's permission, of course and the creche staff were grateful to save a little on drawing paper.

Sadly, I don't think it was continued when I left.

Penelope_Penguin

greenbee wrote: »

Have you put your ideas to your boss? I've always found that selling my green ideas with a clear link to financial benefits has resulted in me being able to do what I like! And you should get credit for your ingenuity and creativity.

I've done this, too :j We now have a box under my desk for paper recycling; we make A5 pads of scrap paper held together with a bulldog clip for note taking; there's a bin in the loo for empty cans and bottles; spare and obsolete office equipment has been Freecycled. As a business (albeit a charity) we're charged for the amount of waste we produce, so reducing it is a real financial saving.

However, Im struggling to get people to switch off lights when they're not in use, and turn down the heating, rather than wearing t-shirts and no jumpers, then opening the windows :wall: and for some reason, no-one will discuss my idea of a wormery for the kitchen :rotfl:

greenbee

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

However, Im struggling to get people to switch off lights when they're not in use, and turn down the heating, rather than wearing t-shirts and no jumpers, then opening the windows :wall: and for some reason, no-one will discuss my idea of a wormery for the kitchen :rotfl:

Show them the electricity bills... or nag them so much that they give in (I just have to look at people near the bins now and they start assuring me that they're recycling ).

As a charity, surely you should be even more careful with your money, as you have a responsibility to make your money go as far as possible. Could you work out what the wastage is and how much you could do with this money if it wasn't spent on energy? There are also agencies that can help you with energy audits and ideas on how to be greener.

As for the kitchen, can you put a compost bin in and at least get the benefit yourself by taking it home for your own composting purposes?

DCFC79

hanamint, i do totally agree with you,

fernliebee

Do you have a local scrap store? I work for a company who run's one and basically they are donated by big companies lot's of lovely scrap! This could be pieces of leftover card or scraps from felt cut outs or even IKEA donate their seconds and shop soiled items. They then sell them (for a small donation) to schools, nurseries, playgroups, kids clubs etc! Find your nearest one, see if they would come and collect from your co. if you can arrange it (some do, some don't I believe) and then approach your manager. Lay out a proposal citing rubbish collection costs etc and see if you can arrange something! The co. will be happy, you will be happy, scrap store will be happy and so will lot's of kiddies! Good luck!