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Learn how your business can truly go green

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One way to ensure your business stays on track with respect to sustainability is to recycle your commercial waste paper and cardboard. By reducing landfill waste and repurposing it, you are contributing to a better workplace culture as well as increasing your bottom line.

If you send your paper waste and cardboard to a recycler that handles these materials, you not only will improve the world but receive compensation for the contents.

So, how does the process work?

First, you need to contact a paper and cardboard waste recycler. Businesses that frequently recycle waste paper and cardboard include furniture suppliers, food distributors, printing companies, and makers of beer or soft drinks.

Commercial waste paper & cardboard recycler

As a source customer, you might contact a company, such as Weston/Runde & Associates, LLC – Commercial Waste Paper & Cardboard Recycling. Once the recycler receives your paper or cardboard, it separates the materials and supplies the product to paper mills. The paper mills, in turn, use the recycled material to produce more paper.

Separating the material for recycling and reuse

Paper waste is separated under different classifications. For example, writing paper is separated from heavier paper and corrugated cardboard is processed individually. A separation system is used where all the paper waste and cardboard are graded and baled before it is sent to the paper mills for processing.

Sharing the profits

As a customer of the recycling company, you will share the money made from sales of the recycled product to the mills. To make the process streamlined and easy, the recycling company offers several services.

Not only are trailers provided for the disposal of the paper at no cost, but prompt payment is also made once the paper and cardboard are received. What a company receives in payment is dependent on the material weight of the paper and the cardboard it collects.

If your company produces a lot of paper and cardboard waste, this type of recycling program will allow it to go green fast.

Moreover, if your company shreds sensitive documents or you use a compactor to bale cardboard, you don’t want to miss the opportunity of using a recycling service. Therefore, you can go green with the machines you already use.

Use shredders to shred cardboard as well as paper. You can even make a shredder or compactor the center for your recycling activities. When your shredder gets full or you get done compacting cardboard, you can transport the content to recycling bins and containers.

Setting up a recycling program at work

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), setting up a recycling program involves several steps. The agency suggests appointing a coordinator for repurposing materials. You will also need to determine your company’s waste stream.

What is a waste stream?

The waste stream represents the lifecycle of recycled materials. Therefore, the stream starts at the source (such as shredding or compacting) and ends with its ultimate disposal. By committing to a recycling program, you are lessening the effect of landfill waste on the environment.

Why recycling matters

While paper waste only takes about one month to decompose in a landfill, the quantity of paper causes problems with space. The material consumes more room than other landfill products.

Also, cardboard breaks down in about one-half year, which is not that long. However, repurposing makes more sense than cutting down trees to make more of the material.

Story by Brad Bernanke

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