Five examples of how we reduce office waste in Australia

It is national recycle week in Australia, and we asked each of our five Australian offices for examples of how they reduce their waste to landfill.

Waste Audit (Melbourne)

As part of the Cundall Diploma, Andrew Street, Stella Matulessya and Ka-Jin Chan did a waste Audit in the Melbourne office.

For 1 week they weighed all the rubbish in the Melbourne office and recorded the figures. This was then analysed and a report was produced and presented to the office. From this presentation, the office decided as a whole that our main office area would only have 2 waste bins and 2 recycling bins. This has resulted to significant waste reduction and a change of mindset in waste disposal.

Alex Presbury, Office Administrator / Receptionist, Melbourne

Creativity in scraps (Perth)

During the recent office relocation in Perth office to Howard St, there were scrap furniture pieces left that were no longer needed (desks, doors, shelves etc.). Instead of discarding them, we chose to repurpose them as timber wall features in our new office. These upcycled pieces now take pride place in our reception area (Pictured above) and our meeting room adorned with our logo and company statements, capturing pieces of our history inside them.

Oliver Grimaldi, Associate, Perth

Recycle and Reuse (Brisbane)

Although our serviced office in Brisbane has general waste and recycling facilities provided in the main breakout space, it doesn’t stop our staff to continually be proactive in finding ways to reduce waste on a daily basis.

We are very diligent in not using disposable coffee cups, instead we use reusable cups from the café downstairs. We also try to be paperless as much as possible with the exceptions of forms that need to be filled out by hand. We also use one sided old prints to recreate into a note pad which is a great way to utilise waste products into something useful before discarding it completely.

David Collins, Associate, Brisbane

Getting Involved (Sydney)

REDcycle’s recovery initiative has teamed up with the two big supermarket chains to collect plastic bags and soft plastic packaging such as chip packets, bubble wrap, sandwich bags and cling film to be recycled. Our Sydney office has come up with a “Scrunch it Sack it” catch line to remind people that if they can scrunch the plastic in their hand, it goes in the sack for recycling at the supermarket. I drop off these collected plastic packaging to partner supermarkets for disposal. These recycled plastics are then turned into a range of great products using the recycled materials.

This program is a true product stewardship model where manufacturers, retailers and consumers are sharing responsibility in creating a sustainable future.

Leanne Panzera, Office Administrator / Receptionist, Sydney

Save waste, save money (Adelaide)

Office furniture including desks, chairs and tables were recycled during office move in July this year, we reused all our old furniture and where additional furniture was required we were able to take the furniture from previous tenants in the new building. This significantly reduced the amount of waste going to landfill as part of our office move and is a demonstration case of how to minimise waste when relocating a tenancy.

Nick Stokoe, Associate, Adelaide

We would love to hear how you reduce your office waste, please comment to share.