Discount Office Supplies Help Your Office Go Green
Companies that would like to reduce their carbon footprint often face a conundrum – recyclable, biodegradable and natural products often cost more than their less-green counterparts. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Many companies offer discount office supplies that include greener choices.
Tips to Green Your Break Room
Your break room is a prime place to start greening your office. Some of the ways you could reduce your contribution to the trash stream and start cleaning up your act include these:
* Replace your usual trash bags with biodegradable trash bags for trash that’s heading for the landfill. Traditional plastic bags take hundreds of years to breakdown in the environment. Biodegradable trash bags break down in 18 to 24 months and biodegrade completely within 36 months.
* Ditch the disposable Styrofoam and paper cups in favor of reusable coffee mugs. If you’d prefer to supply disposable cups for workers, choose eco-friendly hot and cold drink cups that are made with recycled papers that biodegrade quickly.
* Choose disposable dishes and flatware made from eco-friendly materials. Bio-plastics are made from plant-based starches rather than petroleum-based plastics – and are compostable, so you’re greening the supply chain in both directions.
* Provide compostable trash bags for food scraps, coffee grounds, paper and compostable office supplies. These bags are designed to completely break down in about 45 days, and become a source of nutrients for the soil. Check with local landscaping companies to see if any are interested in picking up the compostable bags for use in their business. In the end, you could save more money on trash collection and disposal than you spend for greener discount office supplies.
Greener Cleaning for Your Office
Cleaning supplies are among the worst offenders in the battle to go green. A lot of the green cleaning tips that work for homes just aren’t suited to the office because you have to meet specific standards of cleaning in order to remain in operation. A representative of your discount office supplies company can give you specific suggestions about greener cleaning choices. These tips can help you green your cleaning stream.
* Replace paper towels and ammonia or petroleum-based cleaners with completely biodegradable cleaning wipes. They’re ideal for all-purpose cleaning on hard surfaces, such as desk and countertops, wiping up spills on non-wooden floors and daily wipe-downs of office furniture and fixtures.
* Choose a toilet bowl and bathroom surface cleaner with all-natural ingredients. Typical toilet cleaners introduce harmful chemicals into the water supply, which then have to be filtered out by a water filtration plant. Do your part by keeping the chemicals out to begin with.
* Supply the break room with green dish soap for cleaning up.
* Cut down on the use of plastic garbage bags by providing recycling bins in all office areas. Every piece of paper, plastic or glass that you recycle is a piece of trash diverted from the landfill.
Choosing to go green requires a conscious decision, but it doesn’t have to cut into your bottom line. Check out the green choices offered by your favorite discount office supplies company.