Commercial Recycling and Office Recycling Programs

In any industry, corporate culture can have a large effect on the success of an office recycling program. When a company embraces recycling and has buy-in from senior management, success is practically guaranteed. That’s why ‘culture’ is one of the important 3C’s of recycling at CleanRiver.

At Graybar, a leading North American distributor of electrical, communications, data networking and security products, office recycling was not really top-of-mind for employees. Part of the problem was that although there was a central recycling bin, it wasn’t very accessible to all employees and the easier solution was to throw their recyclables into the garbage cans at each of their desks.

To switch thinking around, CleanRiver supplied Mini Bins – a mini trash can at each desk with a label that reads: This is all the garbage I make. They also installed desk-side recycling containers. Now employees have to carry their Mini Bin to a central trash bin and can easily recycle at their desk. This switch has changed their waste diversion rate – from just 15% to an impressive 65%.

Read the full case study on Graybar