How To Start a Commercial Recycling Program

Where does your business start a recycling program? Today, many businesses are seeking to reduce and minimize the amount of waste going to landfills. Effective waste management services are not only beneficial for the environment but can save your business money at the same time. Recycling programs will vary from business to business, but all of them have the same foundational principles that can be easily replicated and tailored to each user’s needs. Engaging concessionaries and venue managers is crucial to a successful program and the key is to get them involved as early and often as possible. Here are twelve steps to guide your business on how to start an effective recycling program.

Step 1 – Select a Recycling Champion at your Office

Who is going to be your champion? Select a recycling coordinator for your business that will manage the entire operation and will be responsible for:

• Designing the program.
• Selecting the hauler or arranging in-house transportation of material.
• Facilitating education and outreach.
• Tracking progress.

Beyond these immediate responsibilities, the recycling coordinator also acts as point of contact for questions, concerns, and/or comments relating to your business’s recycling program.

Step 2 – Conduct a Waste Audit

Once you have your recycling coordinator, the next step is to Conduct a waste audit to figure out what kind of trash your business creates. Every business will produce different waste streams varying in materials and volume.

Conduct a Waste Audit to find out what types of material are produced in your waste stream –identify each material in the waste stream. This sets up baseline data to evaluate the program.

Look at your current waste management procedures and practices to better understand how recycling fits into your overall program and budget.

Key questions to consider include:

• What materials are in your current waste stream?
• What is the volume of each material being produced? 
• What type of equipment do you currently have? For example, compactors, open tops, balers, etc. 
• What is your monthly expense on disposing all your materials? 
• Are you currently recycling or reusing any materials? 
• How many locations do you have?

Conducting a waste audit will:

• Identify items that can potentially be recycled or reused.
• Inform which recyclables to collect or focus on.
• Provide baseline data to calculate recycling rate (material recycle vs. waste generated) and document progress of program that allows target goals and objectives to be set for the program.

Step 3 – Set Program

Make recycling easy and convenient. It will increase public and vendor participation.

Layout

Recycling bins should be placed where they are most convenient and close to where the recyclables are generated. Your waste audit should help identify these locations. Ideally, place recycling bins next to each trash can. Make sure that it is just as easy to recycle as it is to throw something away.

Collection Bins

To avoid confusion, the recycling bins should look different from trash cans and be easy to identify. Lids with round holes on recycling bins for bottles and cans will reduce contamination, which is when a foreign material (like a half-eaten pizza slice) is mixed into the recycling bin contaminating the recyclable materials. The labels on the recycling and waste bins should be large and clear with both words and pictures.

If your community has a curbside recycling collection program, try coordinating the color of the venue’s bins with the color of the curbside bins. Patrons will associate the bin color with recycling, and this can boost your participation rates.

Bins are usually made from steel, corrugated cardboard, or plastic. Try to purchase collection bins made of postconsumer recycled-content materials.

When selecting bins to use at your business, consider:

• Cost
• Durability
• Capacity
• Ease of handling
• Amount of recycled-content materials

Storage and Pickup

Once the materials have been removed from the collection bins, they need to be stored on-site until picked up by a hauler or delivered to a transfer station or materials recovery facility.

• Will the materials be stored on-site in a shed or a dumpster?
• Will the hauler provide a compactor as part of its contract?

If not, is it feasible to invest in a compactor, which will decrease the number of pickups needed for the collected recyclables?

Step 4 – Inform Stakeholders

Set Attainable Goals

The key is to start small. Do not make extensive changes all at once. Establish small, attainable goals that you can implement over time.

Many businesses already have specific corporate sustainability initiatives in place. If your business does, now is a great time to assess how your recycling program will ladder up to specific goals.

Inform and Get Stakeholders Involved

Create a recycling culture! Motivate and encourage employees, business partners, and consumers to build and establish a culture of recycling. Without stakeholder buy-in, a recycling program would just be a “waste.” Know your audience and make sure they know of your recycling program. Knowing is half the battle to maintain a successful recycling program.

Laying the foundation for your recycling program is key but keeping it over time is just as important. A successful program has support from the top down.  Employees play a large part in your recycling efforts and getting them on board from the start will help the success of your efforts. Education is critical. Consistent communication will help foster a better understanding of what your business is doing and how employees can actively take part.

Step 5 – Outreach and Education

Education is the best way to encourage employees to recycle. Use signs, displays, loudspeaker announcements, and/or text to teach them:

• WHY they should recycle. 
• WHAT they should recycle. 
• WHERE they can recycle. 

Include signage and/or literature on the site showing how much has been recycled already or goals that you are trying to reach. This will stimulate participation.