5 Ways to Reduce Paper Waste at Your Small Business

As part of a green initiative or to simply save money, there are some ways you can reduce paper waste at your small business. Some of the best include the following.

Make only the packaging you need

Packaging accounts for a large percentage of paper waste. Some companies work with suppliers who provide more packages than required. Or you might buy more than you need on an ad-hoc basis. However, you might not be aware that you can become your own packing supplier. Companies like Packsize cardboard manufacturers let you provide your eCommerce business with only the packaging you require. This will significantly reduce the amount of paper waste attributed to your office and will drastically reduce your carbon footprint overall.

Cultivate a digital office

The digital or paperless office is nothing new. But a vast amount of paper is used daily, such as reports, drafts, and company newsletters. However, with all the apps and software available today, it's possible to severely restrict the amount of paper flowing through your office. Need to set up a meeting? Just email everyone the details. Investors need a report on Tuesday? Provide access to your Google Docs URL. With some forward thinking and finding the right apps, you can eliminate most, if not all, of the paper used throughout your company. 

Print both sides to reduce paper waste at your small business

Printing has become one of those things synonymous with an office. Printers are everywhere in a modern office. And why not? They are hugely beneficial machines, after all. However, 90% of companies don't even know how many printers they have. If that's the case, there are too many. And if there are too many printers, there's almost certainly a lot of waste. However, you can reduce that waste by half by using both sides of a page, something which most people don't. Then, of course, you can ask employees to do it. But you should set it as default.

Never print emails

Why would you print emails to read them? It's a strange thing, but some people do. The info is right there in front of you on your device's screen, so just read it there. Additionally, some companies have a policy of printing emails for storage. This is insane when you consider the number of emails that a company goes through throughout the day. One person alone can get hundreds. So unless there is a legal reason, don't print emails. And make it a company policy also. Given the fact that most emails are only a few sentences, it's a gross waste of paper.

Enforce recycling policies

With all the public knowledge about environmental concerns, carbon emissions, and waste, there really is no excuse not to have recycling at your company. If you have recycling options and stick to them, then, well done. But for all your efforts, there will be employees who willfully denounce recycling. Maybe out of some ill-informed notion that we are not destroying the planet or through sheer laziness. Whatever the case, you can redouble your waste reduction efforts by strictly enforcing your recycling policies with disciplinary action against employees who ignore.

Summary

Manufacturing the packaging you need, using both sides of the paper, and enforcing recycling policies. These are great ways to reduce paper waste at your small business.