Office Recycling Championships - I recycled and I liked it....

How often do we hear the shibboleth “reduce, reuse, recycle”? Whether it’s sung to children to the tune of ‘Eensy, weensy spider”, included in poetry as a part of Earth Day or even backed by Jack Johnson, doing his best to make this a bigger hit than ‘Teenage Dream’ or ‘I gotta feeling’, the battle for waste reduction is an uphill struggle – but one that we seem to be confronting reasonably well, at least in Ireland.

As Recycling Week draws to a close, the latest research from Repak (a non-profit organisation responsible for used packaging recycling) suggests reasons for optimism. According to its findings, 644,000 tonnes of used packaging or the equivalent of 24.3 million green bins was recycled at a cost of €28.9m. This places Ireland at No 8 of the 27 EU member states, with a packaging recycling rate of 65pc, ahead of Sweden, the UK, France and Denmark.

Statistics for the workplace are less encouraging. A survey of 1,000 people found 62% do not recycle regularly from the office or desk and 42% did not recycle their plastic bottles. The conclusion is simple: people are not bringing good recycling habits that have developed at home into the workplace.

I think the reason for this disparity in behaviour is obvious. People are often apathetic when it comes to environmental affairs. In the hierarchy of priorities, the environment has not yet forced its way onto a lot of people’s list. While most profess an interest in addressing waste, acknowledge the dangers of climate change and object to high profile cases of environmental degradation, their daily contributions to changing the environment regularly depends on how little effort they have to make.

This helps to explain the difference between home and work. In Dublin, for example, there are different mechanisms available to householders for the recycling of waste including household wheelie bins (different colours for different types of waste), bring banks and recycling centres. It’s never been easier to recycle at home, whereas at work, it takes initiative and effort. When companies make it easy for employees by setting up recycling systems and awareness advertising campaigns, this is when we’ll see a change.

Recycling is not hard and it serves everyone’s interests – companies can save on their waste charges and also help to improve the work environment for the employees, it saves energy, money, reduces waste, preserves landfill space and is ultimately good for the environment.