What can your business reuse either from your own prior use or someone else’s? (NOTE: This is sometimes called “repurposing” meaning a resource such as fabric or metal that was used for one thing is now being used for something else. It is being “repurposed.”) Reusing or repurposing can save you money and be earth friendly.
Of course what you can do varies depending on your business. Some ideas include:
o Scrap paper: Can you use the back of trashed papers for taking down those phone notes? This reduces your purchase of those phone note pads and saves paper.
o Boxes: If you ship anything can you use a box that was already used? Maybe you know of another company that receives products in boxes and then just throws them out or even recycles them. A second use before recycling saves on the energy and resources used in one recycling process.
o In our prior article on reducing I mentioned using reusable cups instead of disposables.
In many cases reusing or repurposing results in the overall reduction of the use of resources. As a note here, however, these actions involve tradeoffs and may need a cost/benefit analysis.
For example, in my company we reuse boxes. We have found, however, that this really only works for certain orders. The time it takes to look through the used boxes for an appropriate size has to be considered. We now have a standard size box and use the others we collect for special orders.
For environmental practices to really work and be sustainable they need to be practical, and beneficial. Find the practices that work for you and do them. As we say at our company – “Notyak! You don’t have to do everything, just do something.”
To learn more about this author, visit Dixie Schmatz's Website.
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