Global Recycling Day, March 18th, also known as World Recycling Day, was created by the Global Recycling Foundation in 2018 to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and conservation, and to help educate the world about the status of our essential resources and environmental challenges.
The theme of this year’s Global Recycling Day is #RecyclingHeroes, highlighting and paying tribute to the people, places and activities that showcase what an important role recycling plays in contributing to an environmentally stable planet and a greener future.
Recycling helps sustain the environment because it lessens the energy we use, enhances the quality of water and air we breathe, and combats climate change. Approximately 700 million tons in CO2 emissions were saved by recycling in 2023, and this is set to increase to one billion tons by the year 2030.1
The Global Recycling movement emphasizes the value of recycling ‘waste’ in a circular economy, and increasingly, individuals, organizations, businesses and governments are directly committing to and endorsing the global movement for higher recyclable numbers.
So many common-use office materials have a high potential for reuse and recycling. But this is only possible if there are protocols and systems in place to do it in the proper way. There are in fact several ways to recycle that allow some materials to be reused multiple times.
WHAT CAN BE RECYCLED?
Among many other substances, materials that can be recycled meaningfully are plastics, metal, fabric and electronics. The production and disposal of plastics is especially high in carbon emissions, which is why it is so important to find ways of reusing and repurposing plastic materials, in particular.
The most common Rule of Recycling is of course: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. When you purchase new products, try and use them more than once and repurpose or recycle them after use. Another recycling rule of thumb is simply to buy and use less products made of plastic, especially single use items.
WAYS TO MAKE RECYCLING EASIER IN YOUR OFFICE
- Form a recycling committee to address the needs of recycling at your facility and to devise creative ways for employees and staff to make recycling an integral part of your organization’s core culture.
- Establish protocols and processes for effective recycling, including the creation of centralized recycling stations.
- Find out about your local community e-waste recycling programs and schedules to recycle used office equipment.
- Encourage everyone to use reusable water bottles and to use tap water instead of buying bottled water.
- Say no to plastic straws, polystyrene trays and plastic cutlery.
- Encourage the use of re-usable shopping bags.
- Create an event at your organization to observe and celebrate Global Recycling Day.
SOME RECYCLING STATISTICS2
- Paper is one of the most-often recycled materials, accounting for half of the materials collected for recycling by weight.
- More than 50 million tons of paper were recovered for recycling in 2021, achieving a 68% recycling rate.
- In 2021, 91.4% of corrugated cardboard was recycled.
- Almost half of the paper recycled in 2021 was used to make cardboard boxes.
- Globally, about 400 million tons of plastic waste are produced yearly.
- About 98% of single-use plastic products are made from fossil fuels.
- Approximately 36% of all plastic produced is used to create packaging, 85% of which ends up in landfills.
- Plastic bottles take upwards of 450 years to degrade,
- Between 75 and 199 million tons of plastic are currently in our oceans.
At ServiceMaster Clean, our commercial cleaning specialists help businesses set up effective recycling programs such as centralized recycling stations in facilities of all scale and in a wide diversity of industries.
ServiceMaster Clean wishes you and your organization a happy and productive Global Recycling Day!
1 https://nationaltoday.com/global-recycling-day/
2https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/recycling-global-statistics-facts-plastic-paper/