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Thread: Employers & environmental issues

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    Senior Member Tradd's Avatar
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    Employers & environmental issues

    This will make you shake your head or laugh.

    My company refuses to recycle paper. Too expensive they said. So I take home the pages I can as drawing paper for a large family I’m close to.

    They stopped buying disposable coffee cups. Trying to save any $$. But a number of people in the office flat out REFUSE to bring their own reusable cup from home. They’re actually taking turns supplying disposable cups themselves. They hide them at one desk so no one who contributes to the cups can’t get one.

    Any stories from your office?

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Wow. I'm shaking my head.

    The company refusing to spend the money on recycling is bad enough, but I truly don't get the people who won't use their own mugs. Are they afraid someone might steal them, or are they too lazy to wash them?

    Oh, and don't tell me the disposable cups they're buying for themselves are styrofoam. It would ruin my day.


    Since I'm self-employed, I have no horror stories to tell about workplace recycling, except that I tend to wait too long to take the paper recycling out and the Trader Joe paper bag rips.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Senior Member Tradd's Avatar
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    They’re too lazy. And yes, the cups are styrofoam. They’re going for the cheapest they can get. I actually asked.

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    My last company tried a pilot program based on some of Ray Anderson's work.

    We offered customers the option to buy the capabilities of the expensive servers we made, instead of purchasing the equipment itself. We would own and service and upgrade the servers, and take them back to recycle and re-use. The customer merely received the utility of the product, and didn't have to be involved in owning them and whatnot.

    It was even a bit cheaper.

    It was Too Soon, or Too Late (IBM had a similar program in the 1950s/1960s) in that particular industry, and we couldn't get liftoff with the program, which was sort of sad. Too much customer education was needed.

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tradd View Post
    They’re too lazy. And yes, the cups are styrofoam. They’re going for the cheapest they can get. I actually asked.

    Argghhh..

    charlie-brown2.jpg
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Not an office, but I could talk about the byzantine recycling rules of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Cant tell you how many times I have stood over their stupid containers, discussing wih someone where we are supposed to put our iris leaves or paper plates. Their choices are “recyclable” “Compost (with photos of paper plates, paper cups, etc.) and “Landfill.”

    Why does the “compostable” bin have 0 nada none pictures of plant material?

    Why does the “recycling” bin not include images of paper cups and plates? Because there is food on them? What if they are dry and clean?

    While I am careful to recycle as best I can at my home, the impossible-to-understand rules of MoBot make me cranky.Fk ‘em.

  7. #7
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    We had recycling bins at Megacorp as far back as the seventies, and not a Styrofoam cup in sight. People mostly brought their own. I had no idea this wasn't the norm.

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    I am kind of shocked that they don't shred the papers since they have customer information on them.

    IL "Why does the “recycling” bin not include images of paper cups and plates? Because there is food on them? What if they are dry and clean?", I would expect because most dry and clean paper goods, get left in packaging and donated to others for use. (proper recycling)

    Bae, sounds like Microsoft with hardware.

    I do wish we had a separate cardboard box recycling at work. However others in the apartments behind, still think those dumpsters are provided to us by their landlord who sold our center years ago. I also wish we had a good fence/lock around them to prevent illegal dumping.

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    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    We all had our own stuff when I was working.

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    Most people here use their own mugs, travel mugs mostly, so that spills can't ruin papers/keyboards/etc. There are disposable cups available because we have a lot of client visits. Although that's something we could work on--there are dishwashers in every kitchen and a kitchen on every floor, so having a small supply of "real" mugs for guests wouldn't be a struggle.

    All paper and cardboard get recycled, although the vast quantities of paper that we used to produce have been greatly lessened by doing more and more work online. There's a young man with Down's syndrome who handles getting the recycling bins emptied and he will gladly tell you what goes in which bin and what needs to go in the trash. He's got his job down pat.

    We even have recyclable pens to hand out--the ink cartridge is plastic and so is the top of the pen, where you push the little button to make the writing tip appear, and there's a metal spring, but the rest of the pen is cardboard or wood.

    In general, the company tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible. They even help organize car pools for employees.

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