Office Space Guide

Waste Management Plan

It is important to develop an overarching waste management plan to ensure all waste materials generated by your office are properly recovered. A waste management plan identifies waste streams produced from on-site operations and takes into consideration locally available infrastructure. An office space is often restricted by the waste partner of the building the office is in, so you may need to work with your building management to identify your options. 

Blue Action: Create an overarching waste management plan.

Components of a waste management plan to consider: 

  1. Designate an internal sustainability staff lead responsible for overseeing the waste management strategy and implementation, working with all relevant team members and external waste haulers. The lead will be responsible for monitoring waste sorting areas, and ensuring correct signage is in place for optimal waste sorting.
  2. Check with the waste management partners of your office building to understand which waste streams they can handle, such as compost and recycling.
  3. Use clear signage to indicate the different bins for composting/recycling/landfill, identifying which items go into each bin to reduce contamination.
    • Base this guidance off of the insight shared from your building’s waste management partners. 
    • Tip – Be very specific about which items go into each bin and include common examples and images for clarity. 
  4. Optimize bin design and placement.
    • Ensure the selected bins match the waste streams created in your office, making sure they match amount of waste produced in each stream. “Right-sizing” bins and selecting an appropriate frequency of collection is both cost-saving and more efficient.  
    • Always pair bins together so that compost/recycling/landfill bins are adjacent, to improve sorting and reduce contamination. If bins are separated, most guests and/or employees will not travel to sort their waste, especially in crowded or highly trafficked areas. 
    • Tip – Removing individual garbage bins at desks reduces the amount of waste produced by employees and increases recycling rates because employees are directed to waste sorting stations in communal areas where signage and social influence can encourage behavior change.