How can you use technology to reduce waste in an office?

Answer 1

Recycling is important for several reasons,

1. To Reduce Bio-Hazards:- Many of the elements in our consumer goods won't biodegrade or don't break down into harmless substances when they are placed into landfill; landfill is still a principal form of waste disposal. This means that overtime they can release toxic and sometimes carcinogenic (cancer causing) elements into the soil and through leaching into the ground water, our rivers, streams and oceans. Eventually such substances can enter the food chain and cause the death or maiming of all sorts of species including ourselves.

2. To Reduce the CO2 (Carbon Dioxide Emissions) and potential dangers of Incineration:- If such materials are incinerated instead of landfilled upon disposal their burning produces CO2 (the principal or most controllable of the climate change or greenhouse gasses) emissions. Also incineration can only be safe if the plant they are incinerated in has very specialised particulate and noxious substance cleaning filter processes. Even at the end of this some fly ash remains that could contaminate land and water if not disposed of properly.

3. Even if materials will biodegrade 'safely' the process of degrading normally releases things like uncontrolled Methane and CO2. Both of which are climate change or 'Greenhouse gasses which contribute to global warming.

4. Open site, landfilled and sea dumped waste are a primary cause of Mammal and Avain (bird) deaths. Plastic shopping bags for example are a primary cause of wildlife death each year. In sea water they can be mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife and birds, whales, seals and turtles eat the bags then die from intestinal blockages; essentially they are starved to death painfully.

5. To Reduce demand on Scarce Resources:- Stone, Clays and other mined materials are finite (i.e. there's only so much we can extract before it runs out recycling building materials helps reduce pressure on these and also the huge carbon emissions involved in their extraction and transportation. Most plastic products are based on oil, this is again a finite resource as we are using it at a rate exceeding the millions of years it takes for oil to form. Wood takes time to grow, recycling wood products takes pressure off our precious forests. Living Trees not only provide a home to many endangered (particularly in the rainforests) and beautiful native species world wide, but they also "ground" CO2 during photosynthesis and lock it away safely; in doing so they help reduce climate change by taking some of the gas out of the atmosphere.

In summary, its important to recycle to reduce the impacts or damage done to the natural world and to preserve resources for the future. Its also important to remember that whilst buying solar panels or taking other relatively expensive steps to act on CO2 might not be within everyone's reach recycling is.

Answer 2

you can email people instead of writing letters and notes out on paper and leaving them laying around. You could also phone someone instead of writing a letter out to them this is the quickest way of communication as long as the other person answer, this will save you time, ink and paper. If a machine in you're office has broken down then you could email the person who supplied you with it for them to come take it away or you could ring them for them to come take it away as soon as possible. If you company has a shredder that does all the shredding for you then you could use that to get rid of all the waste paper. Some company's will have a purchase order control for ordering stationary and the person who does the stationary will have to send the purchase order form through to their manager before being able to purchase stationary this means that the manager could decline items if they think that the building already has enough to supply everyone, this will then stop left over stationary being left around in the building.

Answer 3

There are many ways in which an office can effectively recycle including paper bins, food wastage recycling and even reusing office furniture.

Answer 4

ask them nicely