Office paper, newsprint, juice and milk drink cartons, junk mail, magazines & notepads.
Worth Knowing
Photocopy and printing paper are made from high quality fibre making it an important recyclable material. Currently only 11% of office paper is recycled in Australia (this is one of the worst rates in the developed world).
We do better with newsprint than other types of paper, recycling around 74% of Australian newsprint (~ 2 billion newspapers) each year. That’s a good result but still leaves room for improvement.
There are a number of companies that deal specifically with the collection of office waste paper. Many of these will also safely remove and recycle confidential material (see below for more details).
Manufacturing paper from recycled fibre requires 50% less energy and up to 99% less water than it takes to make the same amount of product using virgin fibre. It also produces up to 90% less by-products.
Each kg of paper or cardboard recycled saves up to 1kg of greenhouse gases.
Doesn’t Paper Just Rot Anyway?
If buried in landfill, paper decomposes slowly without much oxygen. This releases large amounts of methane which is many times worse as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Worth Doing
Most important of all is to reduce your use of paper products in all aspects of your business – both production, packaging, promotion and administration.
Secondly, look for recycled content in any paper products that you buy and avoid buying waxed paper products that can’t be recycled easily.
Like cardboard, paper is easily contaminated. Paper recycles much better when clean so set up a few places around your workplace to store paper safely. This can be amazingly easy to get started. For example, cardboard boxes under desks and a couple of large tubs ‘out the back’ do well for most businesses.
The best paper recycling method for you will depend on your business and how much paper you have. Call the Recycle @ Work hotline and we can give you advice and contact details to suit you.
For more information contact the
Recycle @ Work Hotline on 1800 819 000.
