CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE

cityswitch.net.au

AcknowledgmentsForesight EnvironmentalNSW Office of Environment and HeritageCitySwitch would also like to thank the CitySwitch Program Managers Ben Grimshaw, Christina Hughes and Jeff Elliott for their contribution to this publication. Cover photo: Bupa Australia

Disclaimer: The material in the publication is made available by CitySwitch as an information guide only. CitySwitch disclaims all liability (including, without limitation, liability in negligence) for any expenses, losses, damaged or costs the reader or any relevant third party may incur as a result of reliance upon the information contained in this publication. CitySwitch makes no warranty or representation regarding the accuracy or suitability for any purpose, of the information contained in this publication. The reader should verify all relevant statements and information contained in this publication.

1 Introduction 12 Background on waste 3 2.1 The waste management hierarchy 3 2.2 Waste streams 5 2.3 Did you know disposable coffee cups are not recyclable? 53 Understand your office waste 6 3.1 Know your own waste 6 3.2 Understand current practices and staff knowledge 7 3.3 Investigate IT options to reduce paper usage 7 3.4 Discover your building’s waste management options 8 3.4.1 Your building or facility manager 8 3.4.2 Your cleaning contractor 9 3.4.3 Your waste contractor 9 3.5 Working together 94 Set targets and develop your plan 10 4.1 Establish targets 10 4.2 Developing your waste plan 10 4.3 Management buy-in 115 Recycling systems and bin configurations 12 5.1 Bin systems 13 5.1.1 Centralised bin system 13 5.1.2 Centralised bins and at-desk recycling 13 5.1.3 At-desk bins 14 5.2 Signage 15 5.3 Other factors 15 5.3.1 Line of sight 15 5.3.2 Recycling accountability 15 5.3.3 Waste generation levels 15 5.3.4 Point of contact 156 Staff engagement 16 6.1 Employee behaviour change 167 Monitoring and reporting 17 7.1 Review and improvement 17 7.2 Reporting 188 Further improvements 19 8.1 Additional waste 19 8.2 Common problems and solutions 20 8.3 Sustainable procurement 20 8.4 Carbon and waste management 219 Top 10 office recycling questions answered 22

APPENDICESAPPENDIX A: Staff feedback survey template 23APPENDIX B: Example letter to building management 24APPENDIX C: Example proposal to present to office management 25APPENDIX D: Density conversion factors 26APPENDIX E: Recycling resources 27

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

1 Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Waste Account, Australia, Experimental Estimates, 20132 NSW EPA Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2014–213 Western Australian Waste Strategy: Creating the right environment4 South Australia’s Waste Strategy 2015–20205 NSW EPA 2012 Industry fact sheet, Commercial offices

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 1

This guide provides practical advice to office-based businesses that want to implement a best-practice approach to office waste and recycling.

Australia generates 48 million tonnes of waste per year.1 That’s equivalent to 2.2 tonnes per person. According to the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, the amount we throw away each year is growing 40 per cent faster than the population.

Various states have set ambitious recycling targets for commercial and industrial (C&I) waste, including 70 per cent by 2021 in New South Wales2, 70 per cent by 2020 in Western Australia3 and 80 per cent by 2020 in South Australia.4

OVER 94% OF OFFICE WASTE IS RECYCLABLE5 – HOW DO YOU COMPARE?

It’s a great time for you to tackle waste in your office. Building owners and facility managers are also tackling waste, and the Better Buildings Partnership’s Operational Waste Guidelines provide practical advice for building owners on waste management within commercial buildings.

The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), which measures the environmental performance of Australian buildings and tenancies, is refreshing its rating system for waste within commercial buildings to reflect an increased awareness of waste management and provide additional tools for ongoing measurement.

No matter the size of your business, or the industry you are in, there are measures you can take across your organisation to be more considerate of your waste – and in doing so, you can gain considerable advantages and efficiencies for your business.

Seize the opportunity now. When we act together, we achieve more.

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10 KEY STEPS TO GOOD PRACTICE

Here are 10 key steps you can take to reduce your office waste. Depending on your situation, you may not need to do all of these, so skip any that aren’t relevant to you.

Build your knowledge on waste Section 2: Background on waste 3

Conduct a simple waste assessment using the CitySwitch tool

Section 3.1: Know your own waste 6

Survey your colleagues to see what they know and get their ideas

Section 3.2: Understand current practices and staff knowledge

Appendix A: Staff feedback survey template

7

23

Engage key stakeholders in your building, such as your IT staff, building or facility manager, and cleaning and waste contractors

Section 3.3: Investigate IT options to reduce paper usage

Section 3.4.1: Your building or facility manager

Appendix B: Example letter to building management

Section 3.4.2: Your cleaning contractor

Section 3.4.3: Your waste contractor

Section 3.5: Working together

BBP Operational Waste Guidelines: procurement, management and reporting

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8

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9

9

9

9

Set targets for reducing waste and increasing recycling

Section 4.1: Establish targets 10

Develop your waste plan and engage management

Section 4.2: Developing your waste plan

Section 4.3: Management buy-in

Appendix C: Example proposal to present to office management

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25

Identify and develop the best bin system for your office

Section 5: Recycling systems and bin configurations 12

Develop a staff engagement program Section 6: Staff engagement 16

Monitor and report on results Section 7: Monitoring and reporting 17

Identify opportunities to further your waste program

Section 8: Further improvements 19

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2. BACKGROUND ON WASTE

6 Based on the NSW EPA’s waste hierarchy

AvoidThe best way to reduce waste is to avoid using the product in the first place. This may mean reviewing your current practices, investigating opportunities to automate or digitise processes, or negotiating with your procurement department and supply chain. Ways to avoid creating waste include: › Producing electronic copies of documents

instead of printing › Outsourcing IT and data storage – and

using spare capacity in another facility › Using alternative, sustainable options – for

example, using crockery mugs or reusable coffee cups instead of disposable cups for takeaway coffees.

ReduceWhen designing a waste and recycling strategy, it is important to consider how to reduce the waste produced in the first place. You could do this by: › Ensuring you only buy what you need –

for example, stationery › Implementing an electronic document

policy to reduce printing › Ensuring double-sided, black-and-white

printing is the default for all employees › Implementing pull printing technology › Sourcing products that use less packaging

› Buying products that last longer and can be reused, recovered or recycled at the end of their life – for example, LED light bulbs that have a lifespan of up to 10 years.Many of these initiatives can benefit your business both environmentally and economically.

Before a waste management strategy can be developed, it’s important to have a general understanding of waste. This next section provides a basic summary, explaining the waste management hierarchy, waste streams and recycling.

2.1 The waste management hierarchyThe waste management hierarchy is an accepted approach in Australia and internationally for managing waste within any organisation or process. It sets out the preferred order of waste management practices, from most to least preferred.

MOST PREFERABLE

LEAST PREFERABLE

Avoid and reduce waste

Reuse waste

Recycle waste

Recover energy

Treate waste

Dispose of waste

Waste Management Hierarchy6

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 3

7 Planet Ark Printer Cartridges fact sheet

4

PRINTER CARTRIDGES

According to Planet Ark’s research, Australians dispose of more than 18 million printer cartridges every year, equating to more than 5,000 tonnes of material.7

When printer cartridges break apart in landfill, they can contaminate groundwater and the environment. Cartridge recycling allows plastics, metals and inks to be recovered.

‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ is a national program that can collect and recycle your printer cartridges. See Appendix E for more information.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 4

ReusePlan to reuse as many items as possible. Think about which items could be reused instead of thrown away. › Paper with printing on one side only can

be reused for notepads. › Provide a place in the office to store

used folders, files, clips and covers, then encourage team members to reuse these items.

› Give away items such as furniture, equipment or stationery to charity, or sell them through a third-party reseller or Gumtree (refer to the BBP Strip Out Waste Guidelines to execute best-practice operations when stripping out your office).

RecycleThe main aim of this guide is to help you improve recycling rates within your office, and reduce waste sent to landfill. The key to high-quality recycling is separating at the source. This means sorting the product into specific waste streams at the point of generation (your office floor), and ensuring these waste streams are not contaminated once separated. Speak to your building manager, facility manager or waste service provider to determine which waste streams are currently collected within your building, and whether there is the capacity and demand to add additional waste streams for better separation.

RecoverAt present, not all the waste we produce can be prevented, reused or recycled. However, some of our non-recyclable landfill waste has value in the form of recoverable energy and other by-products, such as soil conditioners.Recovering energy from waste can prevent some of the negative greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of disposing of waste in landfill. A range of complementary processes can be used to recover additional value from waste that would otherwise be disposed of in landfill – some of these processes extract the energy directly while others convert the waste into different types of fuel for later use.These processes include: › Anaerobic digestion of organic waste

– a highly effective process resulting in agricultural-grade compost and methane gas for energy conversion

› Thermal treatment in the form of direct combustion with heat, or energy recovery, gasification and pyrolysis.

LandfillLandfill refers to disposing of waste through a hole in the ground. You must ensure this is done safely and that your landfill waste is sent to a licensed facility. Landfill is the least preferred option in the waste hierarchy. Not only does landfill take up valuable space and potentially produce GHG emissions as it decays, but it also represents a missed opportunity to recover resources, which would reduce the need to produce new carbon-intensive products. For example, an aluminium soft drink can does not produce GHG when sent to landfill, but it does remove the aluminium from circulation and means a new can needs to be produced from virgin materials.

8 NSW EPA 2012 Industry fact sheet, Commercial offices 9 University of Queensland Sustainability Office Coffee Cup fact sheet

(Source: EPA NSW, 2012)

Office waste and recycling streams by weight (using standard waste stream colours, see page 15 for more detail)

Paper and Cardboard 76%

Landfill 6%Glass 2%

Plastic 4%

Food Waste 12%

A COFFEE CUP IN THE RECYCLING BIN CONTAMINATES IT, SENDING THE WHOLE BIN TO LANDFILL

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

› Speak to your building manager or waste contractor about recycling coffee cups.

› Use the CitySwitch Workplace Waste Assessment Tool to determine how many coffee cups your organisation generates.

› The results can help you encourage your colleagues to separate lids and cups, or use a reusable cup.

› Ask local cafés whether they will offer a discount for bringing reusable cups.

2.2 Waste streamsOffice waste primarily consists of paper and cardboard8 (which makes up more than 70 per cent by weight), followed by organic waste (which can contaminate other recycling streams).

The usual waste streams in offices are:

› Paper – including newspapers, magazines, envelopes and sticky notes

› Cardboard – including cereal boxes, tissue boxes and stationery packing items

› Mixed recycling – including metal cans, hard plastics and glass containers

› Organics – food waste

› Miscellaneous stationery

› Landfill/non-recyclable waste – including takeaway coffee cups, soiled paper and plastic food containers that still contain food.

Because of the predominance of paper waste, most offices have the ability to achieve high rates of paper recycling, as long as the right bin system is implemented.

Organics require careful management within an office environment, as contractors will only accept low contamination rates.

Other streams – such as printer cartridges, batteries and e-waste – are generally low in volume, but it is important to separate them to avoid substantial environmental hazards.

More than 1 billion disposable coffee cups are produced every year in Australia, weighing more than 7,000 tonnes, with the majority ending up in landfill.9

What can be recycled? The plastic lid can be recycled. The paper cup technically can be, but most waste recovery facilities currently do not accept them for recycling because the process is not economical, so they need to go into your landfill bin.

2.3 Did you know disposable coffee cups are not recyclable?

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 5

HOW DO YOU MEASURE UP?

The NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) expected 63 per cent per cent of all commercial and industrial waste to be recycled in 2014, and has increased this target to 70 per cent by 2021.10 How much of your waste are you recycling?

3. UNDERSTAND YOUR OFFICE WASTE

(Source: CitySwitch Workplace Waste Assessment Tool)

Example of a CitySwitch Workplace Waste Assessment Tool overview which shows an office’s current waste generation and potential recycling rates

38%

General Waste 28%

19%

Cardboard 23%

Oce Paper 32%

30%

13%

Mixed Recycling 17%

If you’re serious about tackling waste in your office, you need to:

1. Know your own waste – conduct a simple waste assessment

2. Understand current practices and staff knowledge

3. Investigate IT options to reduce paper usage

4. Discover your building’s waste management options

5. Establish targets for waste reduction and diversion.

3.1 Know your own wasteBefore you start any waste conversation, you need to know what waste your business is generating and how much of it you can recycle. After ascertaining this, you can develop a strategy to improve your treatment of office waste.

You do not need to go to the expense of a full waste audit. CitySwitch has created a simple Waste Assessment Tool you can use to get an overview of your office’s waste production.

This tool and instructions can be found at the CitySwitch website.

Sample results from the CitySwitch Waste Assessment Tool are pictured below, with the outer ring representing a current waste breakdown and the inner ring representing the potential.

Using your own results, you can get an

idea of: › Your current waste generation and

recycling rates › Your current contamination rates › Your potential recycling rates › What contamination is in your landfill

and recycling streams

› Where your waste is generated

› The potential cost savings for the building owner.

Once you have completed your waste assessment, return it to your CitySwitch Program Manager, who will produce a report detailing your results. The report will give you an Action Plan to incorporate into your waste plan (found in Section 4).

10 NSW EPA Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2014–21

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 6

3.2 Understand current practices and staff knowledgeAs part of understanding your office’s waste, it is important to talk to your colleagues to understand their current practices and knowledge. They are the ones generating the waste, so they need to have input into any future solution.

Devise a simple staff survey that you can distribute electronically to ascertain what steps they are currently taking to manage their waste (for example, double-sided printing) and gather their opinions as to what should be done and, most importantly, how. Try to understand their recycling behaviours at home and make a connection between what they do at home and what they do at the office. An example survey can be found in Appendix A.

The results of this survey will inform your waste strategy and your staff engagement program. Further details on staff engagement can be found in Section 6.

You could include the results of the office’s waste assessment to show the current situation, or these steps can be done concurrently.

3.3 Investigate IT options to reduce paper usageThe best practice for reducing paper usage is to use electronic copies rather than printing documents. However, sometimes you will need to print. Office paper is often printed on one side only and in colour.

There are simple IT options available to default computers and laptops to print double-sided and in black and white. Speak to your IT department about how this can be done.

A further way of reducing paper waste is to introduce ‘follow me’ or pull printing. Too often documents are printed and never collected. ‘Follow me’ printing requires staff members to log on to the printer before they can print a document – for example, with a PIN or by swiping their ID card. Again, speak to your IT department about the feasibility of this option.

11 NSW EPA Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2014–21

COST SAVINGS THROUGH REDUCING PAPER

Introducing paper-saving initiatives such as electronic copies; default double-sided, black-and-white printing; and ‘follow me’ printing can dramatically reduce paper consumption and costs.

The costs associated with paper waste include the actual cost of the paper and printing.

Use this simple calculation to determine your potential cost savings:

Assumptions All paper waste from offices comprises A4 sheets of paper.Cardboard is collected separately.

Formulae Savings = No. of sheets of A4 paper x (cost of 1 sheet of A4 paper + cost of printing 1 sheet of A4)No. of sheets of A4 = Weight of waste paper/weight of single A4 piece of paper Weight of paper (kg) = Volume of waste paper (L)/density of paper (kg/1,000 L)Density of paper waste = 115 kg/1,000 L11

Weight of single A4 piece of paper = 5g (0.005kg)Cost of 1 sheet of A4 paper = 0.8 centsCost of printing 1 sheet of A4 paper (B&W) = 1.0 cent

Calculation Savings (weight given) = (Weight of paper/0.005) x $0.018Savings (volume given) = ((Volume of waste paper/115)/0.005) x $0.018

Example scenario Your waste assessment estimates that you dispose of 25,000 L of paper annually

Example saving calculation

Saving = ((25,000/115)/0.005) x $0.018 = $782.61

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 7

3.4.1 Your Building or Facility manager

Your building or facility manager can be a real ally when it comes to improving your waste and recycling practices. They can often offer good, practical advice on the various solutions available for your office. They can put you in touch with a waste contractor (if you don’t already have this relationship), who may be available to chat about new and improved systems, including facilities for new types of waste such as printer cartridges, battery recycling or soft plastics (see Section 7 of this guide).

Questions you might want to ask your building or facility manager include:

› Is the current waste separation process undertaken for the whole building?

› Can I see the central waste area?

› Which waste management company currently services the building, and where does this waste ultimately end up (that is, what recovery facilities are used and what level of material recovery does each facility achieve)?

› What are the current waste generation, recycling and contamination rates for the building? (Ask to see a report for the building.)

› What are the current waste management costs, ideally broken down by waste stream?

› Has the building ever undertaken a waste audit?

› Who is the building owner?

› If you’re in a building with other occupants, what are other tenants doing in terms of waste and recycling?

› Does your lease include any clauses about waste management programs in the building?

› Do other tenants want to improve waste management?

› Can additional waste streams, like organic materials, be collected?

› Are there any waste management and recycling provisions within the cleaning contract, – for example, if centralising bin placement saves time, could cleaners undertake ongoing simple assessment as they collect waste?

Working with building management to improve recycling ratesConvincing building management to implement a new building-wide recycling system can be difficult. The most straightforward approach is to demonstrate that it can save money for all of you. How much it can save depends on the nature of the cleaning and waste removal contracts.

Recycling is generally cheaper than landfill disposal. There are a few reasons for this:

› The waste contractors pay less to deliver recyclable materials to waste recovery centres than landfill (due to landfill costs and also various state levies).

› It may be free or even raise revenue to drop off some materials at waste recovery centres, so a waste contractor is only responsible for the transport costs.

› Separated recyclable materials tend to be cleaner and drier than landfill waste, so bins, compactors and collection vehicles can be less expensive and require less maintenance than those used for landfill with food and wet waste.

CitySwitch’s Waste Assessment Tool can highlight the potential savings to the building manager, as they ultimately pay disposal costs.

If your building is owned by an organisation affiliated with the Better Buildings Partnership, it is already focusing on waste. This is a great starting point for your conversation. You can find details about member organisations at the Better Buildings Partnership website.

Use the Better Buildings Partnership’s Leasing Lifecycle Tool to maximise your relationship with your building manager.

You can find an example of how to make a strong case to your building or facility manager in Appendix B.

3.4 Discover your building’s waste management options Your office’s current waste management options may or may not be the same as your building’s.

Any plan you devise will have to match the facilities that your building owner or facility manager offers. Ultimately, the building disposes of your waste through its centralised facility.

You have three key stakeholders:

› Your Building or Facility manager

› Your cleaning contractor

› The waste contractor

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3.4.2 Your cleaning contractor

Working with your cleaners is paramount for the success of any recycling program. Get them involved from the outset, discuss any proposed changes with them and understand what may or may not work within their current scope of work.

Clear and ongoing communication is a must, including clear signage of landfill waste versus recycling. All your hard work can be easily undone if cleaners remove the recycling from your office and place it in the incorrect bins in the loading dock.

Ask them to use translucent plastic bags. This avoids confusion, and contamination issues can be easily seen.

Ensure you have clear and ongoing communication with the cleaning services manager and that all cleaners are trained to properly remove and sort waste. Consider using visual demonstrations.

Your cleaners can also inform you when your waste management system is working well and when it is not. This can help you fix problems as soon as they arise.

Include waste reporting as part of the cleaning and waste collection contract.

Questions you might want to ask your cleaning contractor include:

› How do they transport waste from your office to the central waste area?

› What bags are they using?

› If they are not already using them, can they use translucent plastic bags?

› How can contamination issues be brought to your attention quickly – for example, can they provide feedback using a simple ongoing visual waste assessment as they collect waste on each floor?

› Do they monitor and report on waste, especially any contamination issues? Could you also get these reports for your office?

› What training do the cleaners receive regarding waste management?

3.4.3 The waste contractor

A good waste contractor can help you implement a best-practice waste management system that suits your particular organisation and the set-up of your office.

Often your building or facility manager facilitates your relationship with the waste contractor, so you may need to engage both these stakeholders when improving your own waste management processes.

Questions you might want to ask your waste contractor include:

› Where does the waste go? Which recovery facilities are used?

› What are the acceptance criteria of those facilities, and what happens if the waste is contaminated?

› What percentage of the waste that goes to the facility comes out recycled? What is the grade of recycling?

› What improvements would the waste contractor suggest you make?

› Can additional waste collection streams, such as organic waste, be added?

› How can you, as a tenant, get reports about your own waste production?

If your waste contractor can’t provide the solution you want, consider dealing directly with another contractor who can provide your office with specific bins that can be picked up on an ad hoc basis when full. You will need to inform the building manager and cleaners.

3.5 Working togetherSuccess with any waste reduction or recycling improvement program must involve your cleaners and/or waste contractors. If these contracts are part of your base building services (that is, included in your lease agreement), speak with your building or facility manager about the changes you wish to make and request they hold a meeting with yourself and the cleaners and/or waste contractors to discuss options.

If you are in the process of renewing your services, setting targets or key performance indicators (KPIs) for your cleaners and/or waste contractors will ensure your waste recycling targets are incentivised. If you are in the middle of a contract, it is still critical to involve these stakeholders in any changes you’re making to your existing system. See the BBP Operational Waste Guidelines: procurement, management and reporting for more information.

Make sure your cleaners and/or waste contractors are able to provide you with regular reporting so you can see how you are progressing against your targets. Ask them how they will be able to calculate these reports – if weight- or volume-based measurements are not possible (and this can be the case if you’re in an office building where individual floor-by-floor data collection isn’t feasible), see if you are able to come up with another metric such as visual inspections, feedback from the cleaners or an assessment in six months. It is a good idea to get an independent waste audit on an annual basis, as a minimum, to verify reporting from the cleaners and/or waste contractors.

OPERATIONAL WASTE GUIDELINES:procurement, management and reporting

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

betterbuildingspartnership.com.au

An important note: What can and cannot be recycled varies depending on your office location, and who your waste contractors are. Waste contactors take your waste to different recovery facilities, each with different capabilities. It is important that you clarify this with your building or facility manager and/or waste contractor, so you know exactly what your office will be able to achieve.

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4. SET TARGETS AND DEVELOP YOUR PLAN

Once you have collected information on the amount of waste and recycling your office produces, surveyed staff, spoken to IT about technical solutions, and initiated discussions with key stakeholders about waste options in your building, it’s time to set targets and develop a waste plan.

4.1 Establish targets Your waste assessment establishes your baseline waste and recycling rates; from these you can set targets to reduce waste and increase recycling. Targets will give you and your stakeholders something to aim for and to measure success against.

Your targets must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). If you’re unsure what metrics to use, speak to your waste contractor, your building or facility manager, or your CitySwitch Program Manager.

Specific: Ensure your targets are clear. Rather than something vague like ‘improve levels of recycling’, set specific targets such as:

› Reduce the amount of waste generated by 10 per cent

› Achieve 60 per cent diversion from landfill

› Implement a successful co-mingled/organics/soft plastics recycling bin system with no contamination

› Achieve a five-star NABERS Waste tenancy rating.

Measurable: Your options include measuring your success by volume (litres, square metres, kilograms or tonnes) or percentage diverted from landfill. Make sure you set targets that can be measured by your cleaners or waste contractors.

You can reuse the CitySwitch Waste Assessment Tool to measure your results after a specific period.

Achievable: Ensure your targets are achievable by using your baseline data to set reasonable targets.

Realistic: Make sure your targets are realistic by considering the potential opportunities and restrictions you have uncovered for your office and building, and getting support from management.

Time-bound: Ensure you have timeframes in place to achieve your targets.

When setting each of your targets, you should always consider the people in your office who will be using the system and whose behaviours you might wish to modify.

4.2 Developing your waste planBegin with the Action Plan in your Waste Assessment Report. This identifies key action items from your waste assessment results. Add findings from your other research and develop a plan to meet the targets you have set.

If you have an existing environmental strategy that includes waste, you can use your findings to inform your planning.

Your plan should include selecting the most appropriate bin system for your office (see Section 5), developing clear signage (Section 5.2), creating a staff engagement campaign (Section 6), and establishing metrics for monitoring and reporting (Section 7). You can also identify the potential to expand your waste plan to include more difficult waste streams, as discussed in Section 8.

OBTAINING DATA

Getting waste data from an individual tenancy can sometimes be tricky, so ensure you’re able to measure your success by speaking with your cleaners or your building or facility manager. If you can’t get individual tenancy recycling rates, consider repeating your simple waste assessment in six months to gauge success against the first one you did.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 10

4.3 Management buy-inIf you want to change the way things are done around the office, you’ll need approval from senior management and from whoever is responsible for the day-to-day running of the office. Management buy-in is crucial for changing the waste management system and ensuring the success of a behaviour change program. You will need to prepare a business case supported by relevant evidence you have collected, including:

› Your waste and recycling targets, and waste plan

› Your results from the CitySwitch Waste Assessment Tool (the Executive Summary from the Waste Assessment Tool is designed for this purpose)

› The targets you propose as a result of the waste assessment

A GREAT IDEA FROM THE NSW OEH

At the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), one staff member’s idea resulted in the organisation implementing a building and staff household waste-reduction initiative that has collected more than 130 kilograms of soft plastics in eight months.

NSW OEH already had strong waste management practices. They recycled organics, cardboard, mixed recycling, paper, bathroom paper towels, printer cartridges, polystyrene, batteries, mobile phones and CDs. But they also wanted to recycle soft plastics, including plastic bags, bread bags, pasta bags and cereal box liners.

Collaboratively working with NSW OEH’s own facilities staff, the building manager (Colliers International), cleaners and the REDcycle program, an initiative from a single office floor was extended to include the whole building. Now, all tenants in this 24-storey office block are actively recycling soft plastics. In 2015, OEH diverted 291 kilograms, equivalent to about 73,000 items of soft packaging, from landfill.

Keep your plastic packaging out of landfill with the REDcycle program.

› The results from your staff survey indicating a willingness to improve recycling rates

› Your discussions with both the building manager and your own IT department

› Indicative direct cost savings for your organisation and indirect savings in the form of lower charges to your organisation by your building manager.

The example memo in Appendix C includes potential cost savings. Demonstrating these cost savings is usually a good way of getting management on side.

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You can employ a number of different waste and recycling systems in your office. Your building or facility manager, cleaners or waste contractor will be able to advise on the different types of bins and recycling services available, and which might best suit your organisation.

Your CitySwitch waste assessment results will provide some ideas about what types of bin systems might best suit your office. Best practice suggests that making recycling easy for staff by providing opportunities to recycle in areas where waste is more commonly generated, such as in kitchens and print rooms, is the best way to increase diversion rates and reduce contamination. Results from your staff survey should assist you in determining the best solution.

Whatever bin system you decide on, it must be easy for staff to use. Office recycling fails when users’ needs haven’t been considered adequately. It is important to engage staff from the outset, and to explain why changes are being made. If staff members aren’t sure why you’re changing the current system, they may not cooperate.

Consider covering office recycling procedures in your staff induction process so new employees understand the system from the very start.

CitySwitch’s Fostering green office vertical communities toolkit can help you begin engaging with other stakeholders in your building.

5. RECYCLING SYSTEMS AND BIN CONFIGURATIONS

Origins of waste generated

(Source: CitySwitch Workplace Waste Assessment Tool)

CITYSWITCH TOOLKIT FOSTERING GREEN OFFICE VERTICAL COMMUNITIES 1

WHAT IS A VERTICAL COMMUNITY? A vertical community is formed when a whole commercial building, with diff erent tenants on diff erent floors, work together to achieve common sustainability goals that improve the occupants’ overall experience of the building.

A vertical community can be fostered in any multi-storey building, including strata managed commercial buildings, and can be done in collaboration with the CitySwitch Green Offi ce program. With a structure and approach in place, the community can address a number of building occupancy issues and opportunities, including improved performance in relation to energy, water, recycling, security, wellbeing and more.

The whole process should celebrate achievements and enjoy a culture of co-creation. This goes beyond just the ‘feel-good factor’ – it is fundamental to achieving the goals that are set.

The community approach fosters relationships between building owners, building manager and tenants, creating tangible benefi ts for each. Each stakeholderwill need to have their own targets and key performance indicators, depending on what they are trying to achieve. Individual participant and community goals could be related to energy consumption, occupant amenity or other building management issues. Some examples are:

improving the building’s energy consumption and performance rating

improving whole-building serviceslike use of recycling systems, or sub-metering

supporting tenants’ and owners’ corporate sustainability targets

Energy effi ciency makes a good starting point as it is immediate, measurable and a lot can be done with little or no capital investment. Over time, vertical communities foster dialogue between the building’s key players about sustainability initiatives that involve everyone. The community can provide business and personal dividends, making the work environment more pleasant and increasing the social cohesion in the building.

A STRUCTURED APPROACHThe main challenge of creating a vertical community is bringing together diff erent stakeholders with a variety of corporate cultures, values, commercial goals and objectives. Six broad steps identifi ed from the experience of real commercial buildings are:

1 Obtain support of the building owner and asset manager. A vertical community will need an overall project lead

2 Create the structure: A successful community needs to have a shared intent, and understand the opportunities as well as boundaries to making changes. This will help negotiations proceed in good faith

3 Create shared vision: The community should agree on what they are passionate about and set a vision that is unifying and motivating to inform their activities This might align with the corporate goals of owners or anchor tenants, or connect to local or national objectives. For example the City of Sydney has a goal of 70 percent emissions reduction by 2030(from a 2006 baseline)

4 Set clear goals: SMART objectives, good data and performance indicators are needed to track progress and enable celebration of achievements. SMART objectives are specifi c, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based

5 Learn and share: A series of get-togethers and an information sharing platform will be required in order to have a two-way dialogue and see results

FOSTERING GREEN OFFICE VERTICAL COMMUNITIESTOOLKIT

Why focus on energy effi ciency? Since July 2011, owners of commercial buildings of over 2,000 sqm have been required to disclose a Building Energy Effi ciency Certifi cates (BEEC) at sale or lease. This includes a NABERS rating for the base building – which includes the energy used for lighting in common areas; heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC); and lifts – which can account for half of a building’s energy use.

The fi tout choices and behaviours of tenants strongly aff ect the building’s overall performance, as tenants control the other half of the energy demand equation. Whether tenants switch off both lights and computers infl uences total energy demand. Tenants’ choices for offi ce layout or even dress code can either help or hamper the building operator’s heating and cooling effi ciency strategies.

For example, one degree extra in the range allowed for indoor heating and cooling for the building can result in a 10 percent energy saving for the building and a direct impact on outgoings for tenants.

Print Room General O�ce

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

KitchenKitchenette

Under-desk

General Waste Mixed Recycling Cardboard O�ce Paper

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 12

5.1 Bin systems5.1.1 Centralised bin system

This is our recommended option for achieving high levels of recycling and minimal contamination in your office.

A centralised bin system involves placing a paper recycling bin in a central location (usually in a print room) and landfill waste and mixed recycling/recycling bins in the kitchen. There are no individual desk bins, so people have to get up from their desks and walk to the centralised bins to dispose of their waste. This type of arrangement requires commitment from the top down and clear communication to all employees that individual desk bins will be removed. This type of system is also best from an aesthetic point of view. Fewer bins means less visual pollution in the office.

Pros

› Simple for staff to understand

› Easier and quicker for cleaners, potentially reducing cleaning costs

› Encourages staff members to get up from their desks to stretch their legs and take a short break

› Higher recycling levels are achieved, as there are no desk bins where waste and recycling are mixed together

› Reduces contamination and leakage rates

› Increases staff awareness of the recycling program.

Cons

› Staff members may take some time adjusting to getting up from their desks each time they need to remove rubbish or recycling.

› Some staff members may resent having bins removed from their desks.

› It is difficult to identify individual contaminators.

5.1.2 Centralised bins and at-desk recyclingThis system uses centralised bins and individual paper recycling bins at staff members’ desks. We do not recommend this system as at-desk recycling bins are frequently contaminated.

Cons › Paper recycling can be contaminated

if people don’t want to get up to use the central garbage bin, or if they don’t realise that their desk bin is just for paper recycling.

› Cleaners must know not to add contaminated desk-side bins to paper recycling.

12 Gilson, N, Burton, N, van Uffelen, J and Brown, W, ‘Occupational sitting time: employees? Perceptions of health risks and intervention strategies’, Health Promotion Journal of Australia, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 38–43

CENTRALISED WASTE SOLUTIONS AND ADDITIONAL HEALTH BENEFITS

An increasing number of studies show that sitting for too long is detrimental to our health – even if we get regular exercise. Our bodies were not designed to sit still for long periods of time, rather they were designed for regular movement. Too much sitting has been linked with increased risk of diabetes, heart attack and heart disease, and has also been linked with high blood pressure, obesity, bad cholesterol and too much belly fat.

Our bodies can benefit from simply standing up, contracting muscles and moving. Taking a break every 20 minutes by standing up and walking around the office is ideal. Having a centralised bin system in your office can provide the incentive for staff to get up and walk to the recycling bin and get a break from sitting.12

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 13

Here is an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each system:

Centralised bin system

Centralised bins and at-desk recycling At-desk bins

Recycling capture rate HIGH LOW LOW

Engages stakeholders √ √ √

Health benefits √ √ X

Indoor environment quality √ √ X

Good visual appearance √ X X

Easy for staff to learn √ √ X

Clean waste streams √ √ X

Time-efficient for cleaners √ X X

Cost-efficient √ X X

Low levels of monitoring and reporting √ X X

Engages staff √ √ X

Minimal contamination √ X X

5.1.3 At-desk binsThis is the least preferable option, and we do not recommend it. In this system, each staff member has a small recycling bin and a small garbage bin at their desk. For this solution to be successful, you need to be very clear about what goes in the recycling bin. While this type of system is more convenient for staff, having more bins around the office can also look messy.

Cons › Having only one bin for recycling reduces

the opportunity for further waste segregation and cleaner waste streams.

› Unless staff members are highly engaged and committed, cross-contamination can result.

› It can look messy having a number of bins around the office.

› Cleaners may take more time emptying bins, charge more, or not have time to complete other tasks.

› Staff and cleaners may accidentally mix bins and contaminate recycling.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 14

5.2 SignageHaving clear signage on all bins is crucial to increasing recycling rates. People often get confused about what can and cannot be recycled, which can be the main cause of contamination. All waste and recycling streams should be differentiated with clear signage on all bins and on walls within the waste storage areas or bin hubs. Floor areas could also be coloured to differentiate each waste stream. The diagram above gives an example of clear signage.

Keeping waste and recycling signage simple removes frustration from the waste management experience. Bold colours and easy-to-understand photos are the best way to help guide individuals.

Signage should be clear and readable from a few metres away. There are standard colours used for different recycling streams, much like for domestic recycling, as shown in the table above.

Colours vary slightly between states and territories; search your relevant state or territory government website for further details or if your state or territory is not listed above.

The signage pictured above highlights the key features to include on your organisation’s signage. There are a number of sites with ready-to-use signage you can download (listed below), or you may wish to create branded signage as part of your staff engagement campaign using templates available on the CitySwitch website. Sites offering signage include:

› NSW EPA

› Zero Waste SA

› Sustainability Victoria

› Planet Ark Business Recycling.

FORESIGHT ENVIRONMENTALSIGNAGE & DISPLAY BRIEF

Print @ A3

© Foresight Environmental 2015

INSITU PERSPECTIVE 1 OF 4

WALL SIGNAGE3x POSTERS/EXPLAINERS WITH INTERCHANGABLE CONTENT FOR VISABILITY FROM FAR DISTANCES

BIN SIGNAGESTICKERS DISPLAYING CORRECT US-AGE & FURTHER INFORMATION

FLOOR SIGNAGECOLOURED AREA MARKINGS

NSW VIC SA WA

Paper/cardboard Blue Blue Blue Blue

Mixed recycling Yellow Yellow Yellow Yellow

Landfill Red Red Red Red

Organics (food) Burgundy Green Dark red Burgundy

5.3 Other factors5.3.1 Line of sightRecycling rates improve when each individual can see a bin hub from their desk. The decision to recycle is not made at the bin, or even during the journey to the bin, but subconsciously before we leave our seat.

5.3.2 Recycling accountabilityStudies show that bin hubs used by large numbers of people have higher contamination rates than those shared by a smaller team (between 20 and 25 people).

5.3.3 Waste generation levelsIf bins are overflowing due to inadequate volume, recycling rates will suffer. Waste generation can be estimated using metrics such as kilograms per full-time employee (kg/FTE) data, which you can obtain from the CitySwitch Waste Assessment Tool. This will assist you with calculating the number and size of bins required per bin hub.

5.3.4 Point of contactYou should ensure everyone knows who the point of contact is for any questions about waste. There should also be a clear line of feedback from staff members to whoever is implementing the initiative so that any questions or issues can be addressed as soon as they arise.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 15

6. STAFF ENGAGEMENT INCENTIVISING AT INFIGEN ENERGY

Sometimes a little extra push is needed to help get employees on board with a new recycling program. Telling people about the environmental and cost benefits of recycling alone isn’t going to get everyone engaged.

To encourage staff to reduce their use of disposable coffee cups, Infigen Energy ran a campaign where all 70 employees within its corporate office could order a KeepCup for free.

If you can turn recycling into a friendly competition and offer a reward to the group that creates the least amount of waste, it may help create momentum and get more people engaged. People often like a challenge. Offering a reward will encourage participation. Refer to CitySwitch’s toolkit for running workplace competitions for more information.

Your colleagues are instrumental to the success of your waste and recycling initiatives. If people do not understand why a process is being changed, or are confused about what to do, the initiative will likely fail.

Ensure you engage your colleagues every step of the way so they feel part of the process and understand why your organisation is changing its approach to waste. Continue the engagement you started with them through the survey in Section 3.2.

Consider making waste reduction targets part of employee KPIs, or creating an internal competition to keep people engaged and committed to doing the right thing. CitySwitch has a number of resources and tools to assist with engaging employees and fostering green champions – including workplace sustainability competitions – available on the CitySwitch website.

6.1 Employee behaviour changeEducating your employees about best practices for waste management can take time and may involve more than one step. Here are some key points to remember:

› Make the waste and recycling system simple.

› Use clear and consistent communication.

› Communicate on a regular basis.

› Use positive reinforcement.

› Work with other business units (for example, procurement, IT and HR) to spread the message.

Newsletters or emails from management reminding staff about the process, and providing progress updates, can help reinforce the new process and its outcomes. Include photographs of good practice or common contamination problems to reiterate what can and can’t be recycled.

Use positive reinforcement to encourage and maintain the right behaviours from staff members. Include waste and recycling tips or pointers from our top 10 office recycling questions listed in Section 9 to pre-empt any questions you think staff members may have about what they can and can’t recycle.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 16

Now that you’ve set targets for your office, you need to ensure they’re being achieved and report your achievements with confidence.

7.1 Review and improvementAfter installing new waste and recycling systems, it can take time to make sure they’re being used properly and that the new process becomes the norm for staff members. There will likely be teething issues as your colleagues get used to the new systems. Contamination of your new waste streams will be the key issue. It’s important to regularly review how your new system is performing.

In the initial stages, you’ll need to tackle issues as they arise, and monitor bins daily. There are various ways to do this:

› Visual inspections of each bin: A quick glance in each bin will quickly determine whether your new system is working effectively. The best times to inspect are after lunch and at the end of the day. Take photographs of any contaminated bins to provide feedback to colleagues. A picture can say a thousand words!

› Feedback from cleaners: Ensure your cleaners are reporting issues to you as they arise, and try to pinpoint issues to exact locations so you can identify problem areas. Ask them to take photographs as evidence.

› Feedback from the waste contractor: Ensure the waste contractor is briefed on your new system, and ask them for regular contamination reports and feedback on whether improvements are being made (this may be via the building or facility manager).

The key to making your waste plan a success is feeding back results to your colleagues, management, the building or facility manager, cleaners and the waste contractor – and tackling any issues early on.

Highlight what is and isn’t working. Discuss solutions to any problems. It could just be simple confusion about what can and can’t be recycled or which bin to place waste in.

7. MONITORING AND REPORTING

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 17

WASTE AUDITS

If you are in the process of procuring a new waste contract, your new contractor may be able to provide waste audits free of charge. Speak to them about the opportunities available to get the most from your waste service provider.

PAPER SAVINGS

Use the table below to calculate the direct cost savings to your organisation. Remember to include the time period.

Product Reduction Multiplier Saving, e.g. Monthly

Paper (no. of reams) e.g. $4.00 Reduction x Multiplier

Black & white copying (no. of pages) e.g. $0.008 Reduction x Multiplier

Colour copying (no. of pages) e.g. $0.09 Reduction x Multiplier

Total savings Sum of above

7.2 Reporting Reporting allows you to share good results with colleagues and ensure you’re on track to meet your targets. It allows you to share the business case you’ve built for recycling with both your management and the building manager, which can help build support for you to continue.

Conduct another waste assessment using the CitySwitch Waste Assessment Tool, and compare results to your baseline. This should give you a rough indication of how you’re performing, and hopefully show an increase in recycling rates, as well as decreases in total waste production and contamination rates.

Ask your building or facility manager, or the waste contractor, for copies of the monthly waste report for your building. Ensure the report breaks down waste by the various streams, and shows either total weight or volumes of waste produced. You can convert volumes to weight using the standard density conversion factors provided in Appendix D.

Be aware that you may not see much evidence of change in these reports, unless the whole building is involved. It may be difficult to get a breakdown of your own office’s achievements as the report is often for the whole building.

For more concrete evidence of your success, you can conduct more intensive waste audits. A formal waste audit, conducted by a qualified waste consultant, will give you a more thorough understanding of your waste, such as a breakdown of the amounts and types of materials being sent to landfill or recycling, levels of contamination, and how much could be recovered by implementing additional recycling or composting initiatives. It can also help you identify inefficiencies in your current strategy – for instance, bins that are underused – or the potential to introduce new bins or new waste streams. Waste consultants may also be able to suggest ways to save money on your current services.

A NABERS Waste audit is a more in-depth audit that involves collecting and weighing the material from your waste and recycling bins over a period of time. This can be done for a single tenancy, a base building or a combination of both (the whole building). You will receive a star rating based on how well your system is diverting waste from landfill, with five stars representing market-leading performance. You can estimate your NABERS Waste results on the NABERS website.

You should have also reduced paper usage within your organisation through using electronic documents, double-sided printing and only printing in colour when necessary. Ask your IT and procurement departments for a comparison of paper consumption and printing usage before and after starting the program, and calculate the difference.

You can now calculate any savings from reduced paper consumption. Ask your procurement department for the cost of one ream of paper, and your IT department for the cost of printing per page.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 18

8.1 Additional wasteRemember to consider waste that may not be generated on a daily basis but is still significant, such as printer cartridges and e-waste. When discussing additional recycling possibilities with your building or facility manager, or waste contractor, remember to ask what the minimum amount of waste is to make the service viable.

Mark X or √ in the table on the right if you currently recycle these products or want to.

Refer to Appendix E for recycling resources; the above is only a guide to suppliers. Additional organisations provide similar services. Please ensure due diligence is undertaken.

Some of these services may be available on an ad hoc basis when you have accumulated enough to warrant a pick-up. Quite often, your waste contractor can provide you with a small bin or container to collect the recycling. Ensure your office has space for these in a convenient location, such as the printer room, the corner of your kitchen or a stationery cupboard.

Stream Currently recycle

Want to recycle Supplier Cost

Mobile phones Mobile Muster Nil

Batteries Numerous Nil

Toner cartridges (printer and copier) Planet Ark Nil

Organic waste Waste Contractor Yes

Excess food from cateringOzHarvest

Second BiteNil

Soft plasticsRedCycle

Waste ContractorNil

Light tubes/bulbsFluorocycle (have lists of

various suppliers)Yes

IT equipment and E-waste

Work VenturesTech CollectDrop Zone

Ecycle SolutionsEPSA

Reverse Ewaste

Nil (You may have to

take items to specific drop-off centres)

Office furnitureGood 360

Local CharitiesNil Nil

8. FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

Once you have established a waste system, you can undertake further activities to reduce waste and costs.

KPMG AUSTRALIA

KPMG Australia goes the extra mile to ensure additional waste does not end up in landfill. It has taken the following initiatives:

› Collecting all decommissioned IT equipment and recycling via TES-AMM, which has resulted in them diverting more than 9,000 kilograms of equipment from landfill since 2009

› Partnering with Nespresso to collect and recycle approximately 3,000 aluminium capsules every month, with the remaining coffee grounds sent to compost

› Recycling more than 18,400 toner cartridges through ‘Cartridges for Planet Ark’, diverting more than 16,500 kilograms from landfill.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 19

8.2 Common problems and solutionsMany buildings and offices have recycling systems that are used incorrectly, leading to high levels of contamination and low recycling rates.

Some common problems include:

› Staff putting landfill waste into recycling bins, leading to the whole bin being sent to landfill

› Staff putting recyclables into the landfill waste bin, which therefore aren’t recovered

› Cleaners not understanding the process, and mixing recycling and landfill waste.

Solutions include:

1. Making sure there are adequate numbers of recycling bins and landfill waste bins, and that staff know where to locate them

2. Clear signage on all bins

3. Telling staff about the consequences of contaminated recycling – more waste being sent to landfill and unnecessary disposal costs for your business

4. Regularly communicating with staff about how the new system is working – for example, have a waste awareness day at the office to inform and report

5. Replacing black plastic bin liners in landfill bins with translucent bags so staff and cleaners can see what is in your waste

6. Ensuring cleaners understand their role in your waste and recycling system

7. Getting cleaners to provide rapid feedback on contamination in the recycling system.

8.3 Sustainable procurementSustainable procurement refers to considering the environmental and social impacts of the goods and services that you purchase, not just the direct financial cost to your business. Our waste is a direct result of what we buy. Therefore, we can reduce our waste through the procurement process.

Key questions to ask before procurement include:

› Do I need to purchase this good or service at all?

› Instead of purchasing an item that will eventually become waste, can I procure a service? (For example, using a cloud data storage service instead of buying your own physical servers.)

› How long will the product last?

› Is there a way to reduce the packaging or return the packaging to the manufacturer for reuse?

› Can the product be returned to the manufacturer at the end of its life?

› How much waste will the product generate during use and at the end of its life? Can this waste be recovered or recycled?

As well as reducing your office waste, you should also consider the broader environmental impact associated with the goods and services you procure, including the amount of waste generated, the number of natural resources used, which chemicals have been used and whether eco-friendly or biodegradable materials have been used in the manufacturing process.

You can help ensure sustainability by procuring items such as:

› 100 per cent recycled paper, and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)

› Recycled printer cartridges, and ink cartridges that use eco-friendly dyes

› Products made from recycled materials

› Environmentally friendly cleaning products with recycled or recyclable packaging

› Recycled paper handtowels

› Products with reduced packaging.

Similar to the waste hierarchy discussed in Section 2, your procurement department should consider the materials hierarchy.

MATERIALS HIERARCHY

Zero materials consumption

Prolong product life

Design for end life

Dematerialise

Buy recycled

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 20

13 http://compression.org/the-journey-beyond-waste/

Materials hierarchy13

The following databases may be helpful in determining the environmental credentials of the products you purchase:

› ECO-Buy is an Australian-based initiative that helps organisations implement sustainable procurement strategies through a membership program, consulting services, training, resources and events.

› EcoSpecifier is an online product database that lists their impacts based on a life cycle assessment, allowing you to understand the full environmental impact of the products you are purchasing for your organisation.

› Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) provides an online database of third-party accredited products and services that have been assessed in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for eco-labelling.

› Eco Office is an online supplier of environmentally preferable office supplies.

CitySwitch’s Sustainable Procurement Quick Guide offers tips and guidance on green procurement, including:

› Strategies to avoid unnecessary consumption and manage demand

› Tips on identifying the environmental and social impacts of the purchase

› Advice on reporting and communication.

8.4 Carbon and waste managementHow does your waste contribute to carbon emissions and climate change?

There are three major greenhouse gases (GHGs) – carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). CO2 accounts for about three-quarters of Australia’s emissions, with methane contributing around 21 per cent. To make measuring GHGs easier, all GHGs are converted to a common unit called CO2 equivalent or CO2-e.

In 2014, waste accounted for 2 per cent of Australia’s overall GHG emissions, the majority of this being methane.14 Methane may not be as abundant as CO2, but it is 21 times more effective at trapping heat, making it a very potent GHG. Methane is generated when organic waste decomposes in landfill. The huge amounts of waste that are buried in landfill sites mean that methane may be produced for years after a site is closed due to the waste continuing to slowly decay under the ground.

The table below shows how many kilograms of CO2-e is released when 1 kilogram of waste is left to decay in landfill. Paper produces the most GHG emissions if sent to landfill, which emphasises the importance of recycling paper in reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change.

14 Quarterly update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: September 201415 National Greenhouse Accounts Factors: December 2014 Update

Waste type Carbon impact15

Paper 2.5 kg CO2-e/1 kg of paper(Ream of A4 paper weighs approx. 2.5 kg)

Food waste 1.6 kg CO2-e /1 kg of food waste

Mixed commercial waste 1 kg CO2-e/1kg of Commercial mixed waste

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 21

Can I recycle takeaway cardboard coffee cups?

No. The plastic lining in the cup prevents it from being recycled with other cardboard containers. They have to go in your landfill bin.

Can I recycle takeaway coffee cup lids?

It depends. As with any plastic item, you need to check the plastic recycling number to find out whether that particular plastic can be recycled in your location. Generally, plastics numbered between 1 and 6 can be recycled. Coffee cup lids that don’t have any numbers on them should be placed in the landfill bin.

What are the alternatives to takeaway cups?

Bring your own crockery mug or reusable cup instead. Perhaps arrange a deal with your local café to offer a discount when reusable mugs are brought in. Some cafés already do this!

Can I recycle paper towels, tissues and serviettes?

No. Unfortunately, these paper items are not high enough in quality to be recycled with other paper products like newspaper and general office paper. These items will need to go into the landfill bin. If you have a compost bin, these items can go in there.

Can I recycle pizza boxes?

Technically yes – but it depends on your waste contractor, and they would need to be clean and free from food waste.

Can I recycle paper or cardboard that has sticky tape on it, such as packaging?

Yes, the tape is removed during the recycling process so the paper or cardboard can still be recycled.

Can I recycle plastic takeaway food containers and yogurt pots?

Yes – but again, this depends on your waste contractor. Check what types of plastic they accept and use the recycling numbers on containers (in the triangle symbol) to check what can be recycled. Rinse it before putting it in the recycling bin.

Can I recycle plastic cutlery?

Plastic cutlery should be placed in the landfill bin.

Can I recycle envelopes with plastic windows?

Yes, they can be placed in the paper or cardboard recycling bin.

What are the GHGs of a ream of paper?

Each ream of paper produces 6.25 kilograms of CO2-e; a ream of paper weighs 2.5 kilograms, and each kilogram of paper produces 2.5 kilograms of CO2-e.

9. TOP TEN OFFICE RECYCLING QUESTIONS ANSWERED

QUESTION 1 QUESTION 6

QUESTION 2QUESTION 7

QUESTION 8

QUESTION 9

QUESTION 10

QUESTION 3

QUESTION 4

QUESTION 5

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 22

As you may be aware, we are reviewing our waste management practices to reduce the quantity of waste we send to landfill and our impact on the environment. This project is likely to bring many long-term benefits to our organisation and the environment. But we need your cooperation to succeed. All suggestions and offers of assistance will be greatly valued.

Complete this survey and return it

To: by (date)

1. 1) Please rate the importance of the following issues: (1 = not important, 5 = very important) Waste reduction and recycling at home Waste reduction and recycling in the workplace

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

2. Do you recycle at home? Please list the materials you most commonly recycle at home:

Yes No

3. Do you participate in waste reduction, reuse or recycling in the workplace? Yes No

4. Please answer yes or no to the following questions: a. Do you have a recycling bin in your workspace? b. Are you aware of the types of materials that are able to be recycled at work? c. Is the signage on the different bins easy to understand and user-friendly? d. Are the recycling bins conveniently located to encourage recycling? e. Do you view or file documents/emails on computers, rather than printing them? f. Is your printer set to print double-sided by default? g. Do you recycle one-sided documents for draft reports or notepads?o h. Would you like to receive waste reduction training?

Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No

5. Do you undertake any other personal waste management practices in the workplace? (For example, using a water glass or reusable cup instead of disposable cups, and purchasing recycled items such as paper and printer cartridges.) If so, please list them below.

6. What kinds of waste reduction initiatives do you think would benefit the office? Please list them below.

7. Please list any reasons why you think current recycling systems are not effective, or why waste reduction initiatives may not work in the future.

8. Are you willing to segregate reusable and recyclable materials at work and place them in the appropriate bins or receptacles? If not, what would prevent you from doing this?

Thank you for your assistance!

APPENDIX A: STAFF FEEDBACK SURVEY TEMPLATE

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 23

To: by (date)

1. 1) Please rate the importance of the following issues: (1 = not important, 5 = very important) Waste reduction and recycling at home Waste reduction and recycling in the workplace

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

2. Do you recycle at home? Please list the materials you most commonly recycle at home:

Yes No

3. Do you participate in waste reduction, reuse or recycling in the workplace? Yes No

4. Please answer yes or no to the following questions: a. Do you have a recycling bin in your workspace? b. Are you aware of the types of materials that are able to be recycled at work? c. Is the signage on the different bins easy to understand and user-friendly? d. Are the recycling bins conveniently located to encourage recycling? e. Do you view or file documents/emails on computers, rather than printing them? f. Is your printer set to print double-sided by default? g. Do you recycle one-sided documents for draft reports or notepads?o h. Would you like to receive waste reduction training?

Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No

5. Do you undertake any other personal waste management practices in the workplace? (For example, using a water glass or reusable cup instead of disposable cups, and purchasing recycled items such as paper and printer cartridges.) If so, please list them below.

6. What kinds of waste reduction initiatives do you think would benefit the office? Please list them below.

7. Please list any reasons why you think current recycling systems are not effective, or why waste reduction initiatives may not work in the future.

8. Are you willing to segregate reusable and recyclable materials at work and place them in the appropriate bins or receptacles? If not, what would prevent you from doing this?

Thank you for your assistance!

Dear [insert the name of your building or facility manager],

[Your organisation] has a commitment to sustainability, and has undertaken to report all environmental impacts outlined in our annual report.

As a result of a recent waste assessment within our tenancy, and in keeping with our commitment to the environment, we intend to implement a [insert type] recycling program.

As tenants of [insert building name], we would like to request that building management install a building-wide [insert recycling stream] recycling system. This would be more efficient, and less of a security risk, than if individual tenants arrange their own collections.

We also believe that having an effective [insert recycling stream] recycling system in the building will reduce the overall waste removal costs, thus removing the need to increase facility-servicing fees. The reduced landfill/collection fees will offset the cost of the recycling collection.

We have approached [insert number of waste contractors, including current] waste contractors, which have quoted the following costs:

Company (e.g.) Service Cost

Clean and Tidy Waste Provide two 240L wheelie bins for [insert recycling stream] for each floor. Collection on demand from car park.

$5/bin/collection

From the results of our waste assessment, we have found that office building waste is approximately [insert] per cent [insert recycling stream]. If this was recycled, then we estimate that the building would save $[insert savings] per month in waste disposal fees.

If [insert waste contractor] were selected, this would mean minimal extra work for the cleaning staff. In fact, it may reduce the amount of work involved in collecting materials from individual desk waste bins.

We look forward to discussing this matter with you further.

Yours sincerely,

[Insert your name]

16 Based on Appendix D of Resource NSW’s Waste Reduction in Office Buildings: A Guide for Tenants

APPENDIX B: EXAMPLE LETTER TO BUILDING MANAGEMENT16

Note: You’ll need to investigate how much waste your building produces and what the current waste removal fee is.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 24

Proposal outline

The staff would like to propose that [insert your office] implement a waste reduction and recycling program. This would be not only good for the environment and staff morale, but would save [insert your organisation] money and enhance its external reputation.

To help promote the program among staff, we also propose launching an incentive scheme, where a share of the savings achieved through the waste reduction program goes towards [insert charity options].

Waste reduction program

Action (examples) Description Involvement Costs Savings

Paper recycling Introduce a blue wheelie bin for paper collection.

Place one next to the copier/printer on each floor

Staff – responsible for placing paper in bins

Cleaners – transfer bins to central waste room for collection

$5/bin/collection

= $30/week

NB: We should be able to get building management and the waste contractor to implement paper recycling at no cost to us

None (we are not responsible for waste collection costs within our current lease).

Default double-sided printing

Have IT set all the printers and copiers – and everyone’s computers – to print double-sided by default

IT – responsible for changing the settings

Staff – can also set this up themselves on their own computers

Hourly IT rate × no. of computers × 2 minutes per computer

$50 × 200 × (2/60)

Total cost = $333

Plus additional contribution to [insert charity] of $[insert amount]

We currently order 1,000 reams of paper @ $4/ream

Each ream contains 500 pages

Printing costs are 0.8 cents per page

Estimate 25% paper savings

Paper costs: 25% of 1,000 × $4 = $1,000

Printing costs: 25% of 1,000 × 500 × 0.8 cents = $1,000

Total annual saving = $2,000 Payback = 2 months(does not include time saved on refilling machines, and ordering and handling paper)

17 Based on Appendix C of Resource NSW’s Waste Reduction in Office Buildings: A Guide for Tenants

APPENDIX C: EXAMPLE PROPOSAL TO PRESENT TO OFFICE MANAGEMENT17

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 25

For the assessment, we collect waste data by volume (litres). To calculate disposal costs, this should be converted to weight.

Density conversion factors are a guide only. The density of each waste stream, especially mixed recycling and landfill waste, depends on what is in the bin.

However, where actual weights are unknown, these conversion factors provide a consistent set of assumptions.

This is sourced from the Better Buildings Partnership’s Operational Waste Guidelines as at March 2016. Refer to it for further details.

Stream Material Industry material density conversion factor (kg/1,000 L)

Mixed recycling Paper and containers (paper, plastic, glass, metals) 110

Containers (plastic, glass, metals) 60

Aluminium cans 65

Non-ferrous metals 140

Tin cans 85

Glass 200

Soft (film) 35

Hard 170

Polystyrene 20

Containers 45

Fibre Paper 115

Secure paper (collected for secure document destruction) 300

Loose 55

Compacted 130

Organic Food waste 350

Other food organics (fish, meat) Varies

Rubber 200

Wood (crates) 185

Liquid Cooking oil N/A

Other Fluorescent tubes/light globes 230

Printer cartridges 190

Appliances and electrical goods 230

Computers and office equipment 265

Batteries Varies

Textiles 90 Landfill Dry (excluding organics) 70

Wet (including organics) 115

APPENDIX D: DENSITY CONVERSION FACTORS

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 26

Item Provider

Mobile phones Mobile Muster

Batteries Various

Toner cartridges Planet Ark

Soft plastics RedCycle

Fluorescent tubes Fluorocycle

Excess food Love Food Hate Waste

Oz Harvest

Second Bite

Electronics including IT equipment

Work Ventures

Tech Collect

Drop Zone

Ecycle Solutions

EPSA Ewaste

Reverse Ewaste

Second-hand clothing Dress for Success

Fitted for Work

Uplift Bras

Office furniture Good 360

APPENDIX E: RECYCLING RESOURCES

National

CitySwitch

Planet Ark

Planet Ark Business Recycling

Paper To Paper

Better Buildings Partnership

New South Wales

NSW EPA

NSW EPA Bin Trim

NE Waste

Victoria

Sustainability Victoria

Environment Protection Authority Victoria

South Australia

Zero Waste SA

Queensland

Department of Environment and Heritage Protection

Queensland Government Business and Industry Portal

Western Australia

Western Australian Waste Authority

Sustainable Living Guide

Disclaimer: The listing of an organisation in no way implies any form of endorsement by the City of Sydney, CitySwitch and/or its partner organisations of the products or services provided by that organisation.

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE 27

CITYSWITCH GUIDE TO OFFICE WASTE

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