5 Tips to Boost Your Company's Recycling Levels

Could your business earn more money and improve its eco-friendly reputation by recycling more of your waste? If so, getting your recycling ratios up can be challenging when you have a business to run. What could help? Discover a few ideas to make it work better. 

1. Conduct an Audit

A waste and recycling audit is simply a designated time period in which you assign an auditor or team to assess how much of your waste is recycled. You can conduct it company-wide or just in certain areas, such as manufacturing. The auditors keep all trash and recycling for this period and inspect them at the end to make comparisons of weight and volume.

This audit gives your company a better grasp on what you do and do not recycle and where you should focus efforts. You may then want to follow up on this audit by conducting another after a few months or a year to see where improvement has happened.

2. Talk With Your Recycler

Get a good scrap recycling service on your improvement team. They have experience with many other businesses, so they know what works and what does not. They can also help you understand how you can or can’t recycle your particular waste types and what may make them more valuable when you turn them in. For example, they may recommend a simple magnet test to separate ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

3. Keep It Convenient

One of the biggest obstacles to more recycling is convenience. While most people want to do things that are good for the environment and the company, they are also humans — and probably very busy humans at that. Many businesses have centralized recycling dumpsters or bins, but these may be too far away from where the scrap is to be of much use.



Instead, consider a decentralized arrangement more in line with how employees work and where scrap originates. Instead of one large container, use smaller ones in key work areas. You may need to assign staff to move recycling to the central location, but you will likely see an increase in overall participation. 

4. Share the Profits

Incentive your employees to work with the company to improve recycling rates by giving back to them financially. For instance, you might set up recycling bins for metals and other items with return values in each department. Let the employees keep a percentage of the money their department's efforts have received.

Alternatively, use the excess money — compared with last period's earnings — for something the entire workforce would enjoy. Talk with employees about what they would find the most motivating rewards for their hard work.

5. Make It a Competition

There is nothing wrong with a little healthy competition among employees. And recycling goals could be a great way to build teamwork and comradery while giving everyone shared goals.

Each department might compete with one another to recycle the most usable material overall, or you could create goals for specific types of underrepresented materials. Pit the night shift against the day shift. Or involve management by competing their various direct reports against the other managers' teams. Keep it lighthearted, and create rewards for the winners.

Ready to start improving your company's recycling numbers? No matter what your goals or reasons, the best place to begin is by meeting with Bruce Metal & Salvage. We work with an array of Santa Ana area businesses to make recycling both convenient and profitable for all. Call today to learn more or get answers to your recycling questions. We look forward to working with you on your recycling goals.