Commercial buildings are a significant source of waste, and in multi-tenanted buildings anything beyond basic waste collection is often left up to the individual businesses.
However, it’s easy for building maintenance managers to introduce some simple initiatives that provide value to their clients and a payoff for the environment.
1. Champion A Battery Recycling Program
Batteries contain a mix of valuable and toxic materials, yet Australia has a really low rate of battery recycling. It shouldn’t be this way as recycling batteries is really easy. All you need to do is buy one of our battery recycling buckets. A single charge covers delivery, collection and recycling costs. Then tell your building’s occupants where they can bring their old batteries, or arrange for periodic collections from offices. Call us when your bucket is full and we’ll arrange pickup.
2. Lead The Way On Lighting Recycling
Fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lamps are the mainstay of office and other commercial lighting. The problem is, fluoro lights contain mercury, a toxic pollutant. Some state governments are cracking down on the disposal of fluorescent lights to landfill, but such bans still rely on people doing the right thing.
Fluorescent light recycling is also a simple process. For small-scale compact fluorescent lamp and fluorescent tube disposal we offer pre-paid collection boxes. Our wheelie bins and stillages suit larger-scale recycling of fluorescent tubes and lamps. If you form a partnership with an electrical contractor for regular lighting maintenance, we can arrange for automatic pickup of lighting waste at the same time each year. You can also recycle halogen and incandescent lighting through our collection service.
3. Provide An E-waste Recycling Option
Electronic waste disposal is a growing headache for society and business. While there are a growing number of e-waste recycling programs that cater for household and small businesses, larger businesses need to make their own arrangements. Data security is also an important issue.
Our e-waste recycling service offers both one-off and regular collections of e-waste, and pickups can be co-ordinated with battery or lighting waste collections. We physically destroy all hard drives to protect client data security.
4. Expand General Recycling
The recycling industry is continually coming up with new ways of recycling an expanding range of items. Most buildings provide collection bins for paper, bottles and cans, but what about organic waste, coffee capsules, building construction waste or even cigarette butts? Programs exist for all these types of waste, and many more.
5. Keep An Eye On Energy Efficiency
Commercial buildings are big users of energy, and older buildings in particular often rely on out of date, inefficient equipment. Chillers, boilers, lifts and insulation are all areas where big energy savings can be made. Often such upgrades only occur when equipment reaches the end of its life or during major building renovations. However, with an expanding range of finance options for the upgrade of building energy efficiency becoming available, it’s worth keeping an eye out for opportunities to reduce your building’s environmental footprint. Aside from the environmental benefits, the lower running costs and improved comfort make for happier tenants and higher rents.
How Can We Help?
We can’t help with cigarette butts and banana skins, but as Australia’s leading and most experienced recycler of mercury, we are your perfect partner for recycling e-waste, batteries, and all types of lighting waste.
Call us on 1300 32 62 92, or fill out the form and one of our recycling specialists will be happy to design a recycling program specifically for you.
