How to Be More Environmentally Friendly at Work

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By Mountaindewmeg
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Be More Environmentally Friendly at Work

These days it's hard to be environmentally conscious during the daily grind. But there are a few steps you can take that will barely change your routine and make a huge difference!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Most of us start our day with a coffee or tea, if you are buying your morning beverage every day it can add up to a lot of waste. Many stores use paper cups now instead of Styrofoam but they still come with plastic lids (which are not environmentally safe) and the paper cup just goes in the trash as well. This is probably one of the easiest changes to make, buy a reusable coffee mug. They are relatively inexpensive and actually prevent spills and keep drinks warm longer. Best of all you will save a bundle by making your coffee at home! If you prefer buying coffee from a specific place, they usually charge less if you bring your mug anyway so it's a win win!
Step 2

If you bring drinks to work in cans or bottles don't throw the empty bottles in the trash. See if your company or office will implement a separate can or bag for recyclables. If you don't get any support on that, rinse them out and bring them home to put in your recycle bin at home. In most states you pay a deposit when you buy the drink so cash in on them instead of throwing them in the trash. A good way to get others at work to get behind recycling is to bring the bottles and cans to the return and save the money for something the whole office can enjoy (like lunch).
Step 3

It seems that everyone brings bottled water to work, water bottles like Poland Spring or Dasani are wasteful because the plastic NEVER breaks down. Every single one of those water bottles will end up in a landfill FOREVER. Check out these bottles by SIGG.com, they may seem expensive at first but they are much less expensive than individual bottled water in the long run.

Comments

kkemp said

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on 12/29/2008 Great tips!

dasbootjoe said

on 12/21/2008 Great article! Interesting ideas! Thanks for sharing*****

on 12/20/2008 This is a great article! I always used to throw my bottles in the trash because it was "too much of an effort" to recycle. But then I bought a big green recycling bin, so I can help save the environment one bottle at a time!