Are you looking for strategies to cut down on the amount of paper you use at work? In business, paper waste is a major problem, and reducing it in the workplace can have a positive impact on the environment. In fact, paper accounts for the majority of the non-recyclable trash generated by offices. According to a Kyocera study, the average office worker in the UK uses up to 45 papers each day, with 2/3 of that being deemed waste. We consume approximately 9.9 million tonnes of paper in the UK each year, and one tonne of paper requires 24 trees.

Clearly, we need to make some adjustments and learn how to lessen our reliance on paper, or better yet, go paperless.

We thought we’d share a few creative ideas for paper waste management in the office that you may implement on your own.

Ways to Reduce Paper Waste in Your Office

Use Recycled Paper

Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster proposed the “paperless society” in 1997, a world in which electronic communications and storage would replace books, letters, business documents, and other paper-based materials.

While we’re still a long way from making this a reality, there are certain things you can do at the office to reduce and recycle paper waste. If your company is unable to go paperless, recycled paper from local vendors should be considered. This can assist to minimise the number of trees used in the manufacturing of new paper, as well as the amount of energy and greenhouse emissions released into the atmosphere.

Setting your office printers to print on both sides can help your company produce less waste paper. Reusing file folders and cycling scrap paper instead of sticky notepads are also beneficial.

Reusing file folders and cycling scrap paper instead of sticky notepads are two other strategies to reduce paper waste.

Think well before you print a paper

If you’re looking for a way to cut down on office paper waste, printing less is an apparent solution. Many of us have developed a habit of printing meeting agendas/presentations.

Try including the agenda in your Outlook invitation or emailing your presentation to attendees ahead of time for your next meeting. Having a soft copy allows them to make notes and comments, as well as having something to refer to later. In the cloud, all papers can be stored and shared.

Try to use online notes application

If you take notes, there are some wonderful online options that allow you to work without using a pen and paper, and it’s an easy approach to reduce paper waste.

We enjoy Evernote’s functionalities since they are simple, it can be used on numerous devices, and it is widely used. It’s simple to collaborate on or share notes between teams. Microsoft Onenote is an excellent tool if you want something that feels like a paper notebook. You can organise your notes by storing them in ‘books,’ colour-coding them, and categorizing them. Google Keep is a favourite among some of our coworkers. It’s best for use in meetings because it can take pictures or record voice notes. This is a really useful feature because it eliminates the need to type out your notes afterwards. Apple Notes allows users to take minutes.

Use cloud storage for your files

Many companies are turning to online document storage solutions. Try to utilise Google Drive and Dropbox. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

Google Drive is extensively utilised, owing to its ability to store documents in a variety of formats, edit them online using familiar formatting capabilities, and share them with your team or a single person. Plus, having 15 Gigabytes of free storage is a good bonus.

Dropbox has very similar functionality to other cloud-based storage products. It keep all of your documents safe, up to date, and accessible from any device.

Hot-desking keeps our office free of cluster

Although it may take some getting used to at first, hot desking is an excellent technique to reduce paper usage. It’s considerably more difficult to collect papers if you’re sitting in a new seat every day. If you want to motivate your team to reduce paper waste, it’s a good idea to explore hot-desking.

Cultural support and encouragement to save paper

It’s critical to establish an organisational culture that reinforces the paperless message so that everyone is thinking about how to reduce paper waste and have a positive influence on the environment.

Conclusion

Waste recycling firms that provide commercial pick-up services can provide recycling bins for paper, and cardboard. Some additionally offer information destruction services for E-waste and sensitive business documents that are industry-compliant and NAID-certified.

Call Snappy Rubbish Removal at 02080999767 or visit our website for more information on reducing waste in the workplace.