The Green Routine

If you’re like most people, you spend a good part of your life at work or school. For some people, it’s both!

Image courtesy of wetwebwork

Do you notice people throwing recyclables into the trash at work or school? They might not be doing it because they’re oblivious to the environmental impact. They might be throwing that bottle into the trash out of pure convenience. At my workplace, we have an aluminum collection bin, but nowhere to put glass, plastic, or cardboard. So where does it all end up? In my case, the trash.

To combat this problem, one of my friends asked the county for an extra recycling bin. He brought it into work, and put it in his office next to the door. Whenever someone has a recyclable, they drop it in his recycling bin. They love watching him jump out of his seat when he is deep in concentration and they drop in a bottle that loudly clanks against the others in the bin. Plus, they’re helping to save precious natural resources and keep trash out of landfills.

If your employer or school is not recycling, they could be throwing money into the trash - literally. Eleven states currently have bottle bills and twelve others have them up for vote this year. A bottle bill is a law that states when you purchase a drink in a recyclable container, you will be charged an extra five or ten cents, which is refundable when you bring the container to a recycling center. Even if your state does not have a bottle bill, used aluminum cans sell between .38 and .68 cents a pound.

Many schools and businesses are charged for garbage pickup based upon the amount of waste they produce. If you reduce the amount of waste, you can save the school or business money. Involve the administration or the management. What principal or manager would say no to saving money? See about having a waste audit done to see if your school or business can save money by recycling.

Can’t get official permission? We couldn’t either, but that didn’t stop up from doing something about it. Our manager didn’t have a problem with recycling. The building management handles the waste management for the business - not the business itself. So it was very convoluted to determine who had the authority to make the decision. So we took matters into our own hands.

Recycling containers are fairly commonplace nowadays, and chances are if you plopped one next to the trash can, no one would think twice about why it was there. If someone has a problem with it being in a common area, put a container into your work area, or bring a bag to collect what you can daily. Every little bit helps.

If you couldn’t get official permission, then you will need to take responsibility for bringing the recyclables you collect to the recycling center, but it will be worth it. You will prevent hundreds of pounds of waste from ending up in landfills every year. It only takes one person who is willing to take action on recycling to make a our world a greener place.

Do you have a guerrilla recycling story? If so, share it in the comments!