Office Paper Recycling

Recycling Paper is Good for Business!

As a manager for your company, you are always looking for ways to save money. One way to accomplish this is by recycling office paper. Since a typical office worker throws away over half a pound of recyclable paper every day, recycling this paper will reduce your trash disposal costs. Every pound of paper recycled is one you don't need to have hauled away and landfilled. By recycling you can:

Earn money from the sale of your high grade office paper (depends on markets).
Lower your waste disposal costs by reducing the amount of trash landfilled.
Support the paper industry by supplying a high quality raw material to paper mills.
Project a good public image for your company -- recycling shows you care about the environment.

It's Good for the Environment!

Recycling paper conserves trees by producing new paper from used paper rather than from trees. Recycling reduces air, water, and land pollution. For instance, every ton of paper that is recycled saves:

17 trees
7,000 gallons of water
4,200 kilowatt hours of energy
410 gallons of fuel

Recycling paper produces 60% less air pollution than producing paper from trees.

Who Can Use an Office Paper Recycling Program?

Any company, large or small, can implement a paper recycling program. If you are a small company with 20 office workers or less, you can either take your paper to a recycling center or join together with other companies in your building and recycle together. By joining together, you will easily produce enough paper to hire a recycler to pick up your paper. If you lease space in a commercial building, contact your building manager to find out if a recycling program is being planned. If not, try to encourage the manager to help you start one.

Another option for recycling paper right away is to collect the paper on your own and drop it off at any Abitibi Paper Retriever box. These drop boxes support local charities.

What Paper is Recyclable?

Virtually all the paper produced in an office is recyclable, but some types are more valuable than others. Therefore, recyclers classify paper into various grades. The definitions of paper grades may vary from recycler to recycler so it is best to ask your recycler what type they accept and how the paper should be sorted to get the most monetary value from the paper.

Who Should I Call for Recycling Services?

Caraustar Cleveland Recycling
www.caraustar.com
(216) 961-5060
(216) 961-5060

Gateway Recycling
www.gatewayrecycle.com
(216) 341-8777

Northcoast Shredding Services
www.northcoastrecycling.com
(440) 943-6968

Recycle Midwest
(216) 481-9490

Royal Oak Recycling
www.royaloakrecycling.com
(216) 325-1500

Shred-It
www.shredit.com
(440) 243-8500

Waste Management Inc.
www.wm.com
(440) 201-1607

For detailed step-by-step instructions on recycling at work, contact the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District for a free copy of Less is More: A Guide to Recycling in the Workplace. For additional assistance, contact the District’s Business Recycling Specialist at (216) 443-3749.