Bottled water typically comes in plastic bottles. As you know, plastic decomposes very slowly. It is estimated that it could take up to 500 years for a single water bottle to biodegrade. At our current rate of production, that’s a lot of plastic lying around for a very long time. So why not start a water bottle recycling program at your office?
It’s not hard, and it could earn you some brownie points where you work. Here’s one way you could start such a program in your office.
Steps To Starting A Water Bottle Recycling Program
If you want to make an impact on the environment while continuing to enjoy the benefits of bottle water, start a water bottle recycling program. Here’s a simple method to doing so that is very likely to succeed.
- Start small. Start in your immediate office area. Ask your co-workers to give you their plastic water bottles Research recycling companies. each day. Don’t tell them why. Collect water bottles for a week. At the end of the week, count them.
- Do the math. Let’s say you collect 50 water bottles from 10 co-workers. That’s an average of 5 water bottles per employee, or 1 per day. Multiply that number by the number of employees in your company. That’s a rough estimate of how many plastic water bottles your company produces each week.
- Find three recycling companies and call them. Look them up on the Internet or your local yellow pages. Find out whether they recycle plastic, what they pay, whether they pick up or expect you to deliver, whether they provide recycling bins, etc. Get as much information as you can about each company.
- Present a proposal. Next, you’ll need to get management behind you. Take the information you’ve gathered so far and present a proposal. Your proposal should include details from your personal collection experiment in Step 1, the math in Step 2, and information about each of the recycling companies you researched in Step 3. You should then use that information to make a recommendation that includes how you will collect water bottles, who will be responsible for managing the program, how often you will pick up water bottles in each office section, when they will be delivered to the company, and any other pertinent details relevant.
- Talk to your co-workers. After you have the blessing of management, talk to your co-workers. Get their support too. After all, it will be their water bottles you collect.
- Choose a company. Your company’s management may want a say in this. If so, let them have it. If they don’t move fast enough, gently prod or remind them that you are still interested until a recycling company is selected.
- Start the program. Place your water bottle collection boxes in strategic locations such as break rooms, foyers, hallways, or wherever company management says you can put them.
