How to Incentivize Employees to Recycle

Every year, U.S. companies spend over $120 billion on printed materials and use an average of 10,000 sheets of paper. What makes it worse is that most of those costly printed materials are out of date within a matter of months and less than half of all that paper is recycled. Your employees can be the key to helping recycle all paper found in offices. Here are a few ways you can reduce your supply costs and encourage your employees to recycle.

Use Recycling Bins

Your company already has trash cans in easily accessible places, so why not throw a few recycling bins next to them? Be sure to pick the places that make the most sense, like putting the paper recycling bin next to the copy machine and the printers, or the one for aluminum cans in the break room. Always keep your recycling bins visible and encourage your employees to use them.

Maximize Participation

Recycling efforts will inevitably differ from department to department. Your recycling efforts should represent the diversity of your company. Create different programs that will cater to people in different levels of the organization as well. Consider giving credit to those who participate through something like an awards ceremony, or give out special prizes.

Whether you choose to do something as simple as adding one recycling bin to your office, or choose to launch an entire incentive, your efforts will save your company a lot of time and money. By engaging your employees in these recycling efforts through increased access to bins and the use of competition to drive up participation, your company can make an incredible difference on our world. Read more on Pratt Industries.

This article was written by our digital marketing intern, Redding Byrd.