Regional Newspaper

This company produces a daily regional newspaper and two weekly community newspapers. The 110 staff members are housed in a multi-level office building and plant. Prior to the audit and preparation of a company environmental policy, waste from the offices, meeting rooms and cafeteria was emptied each day into a 2.5 tonne open skip. All rubbish was mixed and handled by the cleaning contractor, with the skip emptied twice a week.

Waste minimisation steps …

• All rubbish is now separated at source. Staff members have their own paper recycling box and are responsible for delivering it to a central location at the end of each workday. This is mostly office paper and paper packaging, which is now taken out to the car park and stored in wheelie bins for recycling.
• The chute, formerly used to capture all rubbish and direct it into a skip bin, is now used for cardboard packaging and serviced by a large recycling cage.
• Recycling bins have been placed in the cafeteria to collect glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, and tin and aluminium cans. There is also a recycling box for old newspapers and magazines.
• Food scraps, tea bags and coffee grounds are now placed in a 20-litre plastic bucket and collected regularly by a local pig farmer co-op.
• Recycling of printer and ink cartridges. Double-sided photocopying and the reuse of paper for note taking has also been recommended.
• Computer paper and end rolls of newsprint from the factory are either given away or sold in larger quantities to schools and kindergartens.

Results

• A skip bin is no longer required as the volume of  'rubbish' has been greatly reduced.
• 16 cubic metres of waste diverted from the landfill each month. That’s 192 cubic metres - almost 90 tonnes of waste - per year.
• Waste disposal costs slashed by $1,500 in the first year.