8 Ways to Green Your Office Supplies

This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.

Whether you work in a Fortune 500 company or a one-person home office, you’re going to use office supplies. Here’s eight ways to go green that will also save your business some green.

1. Buy in Bulk

Buying in bulk makes sense for a variety of reasons. You’ll save money over the long-haul. You’ll make less trips to the office supply store. You’ll also cut down on packaging such as plastic bags. Ordering supplies in bulk online will also get you lower or free shipping.

2. Reuse and Recycle Packaging

Regardless of how large your order is, you’re going to end up with packaging to dispose. Use Earth911 to find out where to recycle packaging. Before you do, though, consider ways it can be reused:

• Cardboard boxes can be used to ship packages or move items around, and they can be collapsed when not in use to take up little space.
• Plastic bags, bubble wrap and packing peanuts can be used to store and protect valuables.

3. Spring for the Warranty

When you buy a new computer monitor or other electronic device, the warranty may not seem like a smart investment. But warranties let you repair your electronics instead of buying new ones, meaning less waste is created. Plus, the cost of the warranty will surely be less than buying a new product in two or three years.

4. Search for Scrap

Paper clips are prime candidates for reuse, but eventually you may find they are ready for disposal. The upside of this is that they are made of steel, which is one of the most valuable recyclable products. The same goes for staples, which you can remove from unneeded paper and recycle.

These products can be recycled as scrap metal with your steel cans. If you are searching for other office supplies made of steel, pull out a magnet. If your metal is attracted to magnets, it can be recycled as scrap metal (provided that it’s entirely made of metal). Be careful -  don’t get that magnet near your electronic equipment, or you’ll need to recycle more then just paper clips!

5. Refill Your Ink Cartridges

It takes a gallon of oil to manufacture one inkjet cartridge. You can significantly reduce this amount by having your cartridges refilled instead of buying a new one every time. Depending on the cartridge, you may get five to seven uses by refilling the same cartridge. This will also save up to 75 percent of the cost of a new cartridge. Find an ink cartridge refiller using Earth911.

6. Monitor Paper Usage

According to the EPA, each employee in a typical business office generates 1.5 pounds of waste paper per day. Here are several ways to trim that number down:

1. Print/make copies only when necessary
2. Use a removable stick-on label for your fax cover sheets
3. Set printers and copiers to print on both sides of paper

You can also look for paper with the highest percentage of recycled content. This gives you even more reason to recycle office paper.

7. Know Your Plastic Code

You may be surprised how many of your office supplies are made of recycle that plastic.

8. Set Up an Office Recycling Program

If you have curbside recycling at home, why not at the office as well? After all, the EPA estimates that up to 40 percent of our municipal solid waste comes from businesses.

Setting up an office recycling program will help divert much of your waste from landfills, and could save your company money on hauling fees for other office trash. If your whole office gets involved, you may be surprised how much you can recycle. Check out Earth911’s Business site for more eco-friendly business ideas as well.