Posts tagged ‘recycle’
Recycle Right: Choose the Proper Can for Your Office
Steel Recycle Bins
Recycle with the Perfect Recycling Trash Can
300 to 400 tons of trash are dumped daily on the once bucolic island of Thilafushi in the Maldives, transforming it into a toxic wasteland. Moscow, Naples, and the state of New Jersey are plagued by chronic landfill overflow problems, inciting political debate and international press coverage. In Los Angeles, two Material Recycling Facilities, or MRFs, have experienced an overnight spike in volume from 200 tons a day each to a combined 10,000 after the closure of America’s largest landfill, which received a staggering 12,000 tons of waste a day, or half of Los Angeles County’s daily trash production. Many American landfills will reach capacity within the next five years, and operators are resorting to incineration, which is considered hazardous because of toxic air pollution. On this front, the EPA is conducting a study on dioxin emissions to determine if this practice is safe or would cause long term health devastation to local communities like the Seveso disaster. Recycling is universally touted as the most immediate solution to the global landfill crisis. Recycling trash cans can help in getting you started.
Even if your office has never recycled before, it only takes a few simple steps to start. First, identify local facilities or municipal collection programs that will accept materials. If quick Googling doesn’t help, many MRFs are listed in regional online databases such as these. Any local or regional MRF or waste management provider could be helpful in directing you to your nearest facility or hauling service. Second, choose the perfect office recycling bins to do the job. Lastly, start your recycling campaign at the office. For specialty needs like e-waste, business to business arrangements may also be suitable as several large U.S. based electronics manufacturers have committed to recycling divisions.
How to Minimize Waste at Work
Based on collection availability in your area, match with the items your office tends to produce. Every office where people eat lunch and have snack breaks will produce some blue category recyclables such as glass and plastic bottles. Maybe your office also produces a large volume of e-waste, scrap metal, plastic bags, construction materials or biodegradable materials. These different categories of items typically do not go to the same facility, so multiple bins or sectioned cans with separate liners are required for collection.
Encourage recycling in the work place by selecting the proper public recycle bin for your needs. An office producing large amounts of recyclable paper may want to shirk desk trash cans for small recycling wastebaskets and place a community waste receptacle for trash. Any office can encourage paper recycling by placing a can near a shared printer or copier. A recycling can in decorative gloss chrome or metallic silver reminds workers where to place aluminum, scrap metal, or e-waste. Covered bins can reduce the odor problem associated with biodegradable material. If your office produces multiple categories of recyclables or employees are confused by the recycling initiative, office recycling bins are available that are compartmentalized, labelled, and custom colored to collect multiple types of materials and remind employees of a can’s designated purpose.
Trash Cans Unlimited offers an array of designer receptacles to meet any recycling need.
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Half Round Recycle Bins
Why Recycle?
The two main reasons to recycle are to conserve the Earth’s resources and to reduce harmful CO2 emissions that result from the manufacture of products. When considering the carbon footprint of a manufactured product, one must consider the materials used, the energy used to create the product and the transport of the product. In addition, waste products created during manufacture must also be considered. Some of these waste products contaminate the environment and harm wildlife. The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) perhaps says it best when it points out that the manufacture and transport of products “leaves the world poorer, not better off.” The hole in the ozone layer, smog, global warming and water pollution are all a direct result of manufacturing.
While it is unrealistic to discontinue the manufacture and transport of products, homes and businesses can reduce their impact on the environment by recycling. The average American produces an estimated 4.3 pounds of trash a day, according to Population Education, and businesses often produce much higher amounts, depending on the industry. Recycling can greatly cut down on the total amount of waste. For example, recycling aluminum greatly reduces the emission of greenhouse gases because it takes 95 percent less energy to make aluminum cans out of recycled aluminum than it does to use virgin aluminum, estimates the Can Manufacturers Institute.
Ways to Recycle
There are two main ways that homes and businesses can recycle. One is to reuse products. The more products that are reused, the less that have to be purchased. The other main way is to send products to recycling facilities where they will be processed into a raw material and reused to manufacture a new product.
Home and Business Recycling Options
Homes and business can go green by using the proper waste control and management. First of all, trash should be divided from recyclable materials. The best way to do this is to recycling containers for the collection of recyclable materials. Businesses should place recycle bins in strategic locations throughout the workspace to ensure employee cooperation with recycling efforts. Different recycling trash cans should be set out for different types of materials. For instance, plastics, aluminum and paper can be put in a recycling bin that is set for trash pickup. Other materials that waste management companies generally do not pick up, such as Styrofoam, asphalt roofing tiles, electronics and batteries should be placed in separate containers for special pickup or drop off to places that accept those materials.
Recycling is perhaps the most sustainable step homes and businesses can take to help preserve the environment. The right recycling bins make the effort a lot easier, because items can be categorized according to their final destination. A recycling container can even be set out for items intended for donation. For example, one company may have no use for its scrap materials, but another company may indeed have a use for them.
Trash Cans Unlimited makes recycling easy for homes and business with its attractive recycling can choices in different styles and sizes to meet every need.
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