Recycling at school

It’s Clean-up and Recycle Week and there are lots of community cleaning up projects all over the country. If you want to find out more, please visit http://www.cleanup-sa.co.za/cleanupdiary.htm.

Schools are often very involved with their communities. A school is the perfect place to locate recycling bins. These bins do need to be well managed so that they do not over-fill. The school may choose not to have facilities for all recyclable material but only select collecting one or two items.

The school should identify a company that can come collect the recyclable materials or alternatively find a charity organisation that will collect the recyclables who can benefit from these goods.

Educators, learners and parents must be educated and encouraged to use the recycling facilities to ensure participation. Learners should know about how the packaging of their lunch or drinks maybe recycled. They should be encouraged to use bottles and lunch boxes that are not disposable so that they create less waste.

It may be necessary for bottles, cans and boxes to be flattened if they are to be stored before they are collected.

We can all do some kind of recycling. If you haven’t yet started then pick one thing to recycle. You’ll see it’s easier than you think. At Blendwell Chemicals  we’re always looking for new ways to recycle our waste. We can all work together for a better world for our children.

Recycling at the office

Since it’s Clean Up and Recycling Week, this is the perfect time to look at how we are doing things and see if we can do them better. Find ways of recycling goods in your office is a great way to contribute. For more information on community projects, please visit http://www.cleanup-sa.co.za/cleanupdiary.htm

Each office is different but there are many different things you can do. Firstly you will need to assess your environment and see where you create recyclable waste. Many offices still use a lot of paper. Making sure that where possible the blank side of paper is also used is an easy way to recycle. You can cut up this used paper and use the clean side to write phone messages and notes. Even better, your phone messages can all be on email – taking out the need for message slips that may get lost. Instead, you may consider paper that has been printed to be taken home and used by your staff member’s children for drawing on.

The paper that does have to go through your shredder can be collected by a paper recycling company to ensure that it does not go into normal waste.

If you do not have a canteen on site, staff members should be encouraged to bring lunch in a plastic lunch box and something to drink in a glass or plastic juice bottle. If these are used every day, there will be much less of an environmental impact than new plastic or paper bags and cans or new bottles being used each day.

All staff members will need to be informed of your recycling efforts and bins for different items must be easy to access for the system to work.

Identify a company that will be able to collect your recyclable items if you do not have facilities nearby to drop off.

There are many creative ways to recycle things in your office. You just have to look at your office and  work out what can be re-used or recycled. Find a way to do your part in Clean-up and Recycle Week! Blendwell Chemicals is looking for ways to improve too.

Photo courtesy of Sanja Gjenero for RGB Stock.