Most people these days care a lot about the environment, and doing their part to reduce the impact of our human activities on the climate. If you’re a small business owner, the decisions you make can make a big impact on the environment around us. From encouraging recycling, to using a trash compactor, to reducing water waste, your business can become more eco-friendly using these 5 tips.
1. Encourage recycling among employees and customers.
If you run a business that gives customers packaging, such as a fast food restaurant, you should offer eco-friendly ways of disposing this packaging. You’ll also want to make it easy for customers, perhaps labelling your garbage cans with images of which packaging can go where.
This prevents accidental disposal of non-recyclable products with recyclable products, making the recycling process more efficient. Talk to your employees about sorting trash, and explain how their actions can affect the environment.
2. Use eco-friendly packaging.
Many online retailers these days ship packages out to customers. This can create a lot of waste. It’s worthwhile to research eco-friendly packaging options, such as sealed air for cushioning instead of styrofoam pellets. You’ll also want to make sure you’re using the smallest box that fits the item, not only for the environment but also to save you money.
If you’re in the food industry, look into compostable disposable food packaging and cutlery. Having compostable bowls can encourage customers to use compost bins, because they won’t have to scrape the food. The key is to make it easy on the customer.
3. Invest in a trash compactor.
Trash compactors are used to push air and wasted space out of waste products and to package them into the smallest size available. There are so many reasons that using a trash compactor is an eco-friendly decision.
First, it means your trash will take up less space in the landfill. That’s always a bonus. Second, it means you’ll need fewer truckloads to haul your trash to the landfill, reducing fuel emissions and saving you money on garbage disposal. And finally, it reduces the number of trash bags needed to seal up the trash.
4. Avoid water waste.
If your business uses water, it’s a good idea to talk to your employees about water waste. Not only does this benefit the environment, it can reduce your water bill, too. You’ll want to make sure employees understand not to leave taps running, and to use the minimum amount of water required to get the job done.
Even if your business doesn’t use water (for example, you’re a printing company), employees can avoid wasting water in the washrooms.
5. Encourage composting.
While composting is often thought of as most important in the food industry, you can also encourage your employees to compost their lunches, even if you don’t handle food at your business.
Composting is a great way to make use of food scraps, and many municipalities offer “green bin” programs where they will do the composting for you. If you have an office garden, you can use your compost to fertilize it regularly.
