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General Print Supplies, Services for Printers
News Release from: Envirowise
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 February 2006
National Experiment To Reduce Everyday
Waste Paper
Printing businesses across the UK will be encouraged to take part in a day long experiment to determine how reducing everyday waste could have an impact on efficiency and profitability.
Printing businesses across the UK will be encouraged to take part in a day long experiment to determine how reducing everyday waste could have an impact on efficiency and profitability February 21 is part of an Envirowise initiative that will see firms urged to restrict the availability of office bins for the day
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 25 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Envirowise programme director, Dr Martin Gibson, explained: "Businesses throw away a staggering quantity of unnecessary waste every year.
In our experience a lot of office waste in particular is thrown in the bin because, for busy office workers, the bin is often the quickest and most convenient place to 'file' unwanted items from paper to plastic cups.
He continued: "Unfortunately, very few firms realise just how costly this habit of convenience can be, in both financial and environmental terms.
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We hope that participating in One Bin Day will help firms to reassess these wasteful habits and understand the benefits of changing their ways." On One Bin Day participating firms will be asked to remove from the office all but one bin.
Envirowise believes that it will have two effects.
Firstly it will remove the convenience of having a bin next to every desk, so staff will have to think about the way they deal with unwanted items, rather than simply dropping them in to their own personal bins without a second thought.
Secondly if staff stick to their normal routine, a single bin will quickly become full and overflow, creating a very visual illustration of the level of waste being generated on a daily basis.
The potential benefits of cutting down on business waste are huge, according to Envirowise.
Office waste, especially paper, will be an obvious focus on One Bin Day.
The organisation said that around five million tonnes of commercial waste in the UK is made up of printing and writing paper, whilst paper usage is rising by around 20 per cent every year.
In addition, the average office worker uses approximately 50 sheets of paper every day.
However, according to Dr Gibson, waste paper is only a small part of the problem: "Whilst cutting down on paper use in offices is a very important aim, and central to our objectives for One Bin Day, paper use really is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business waste.
Industrial and commercial businesses across the UK create around 75 million tonnes of waste every year." And he added: "I would encourage firms to use One Bin Day as a time to look at waste in all areas.
I think many will be surprised at what they find, and at the savings they can make." More information is available on the Envirowise website.
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