Recycling Papers In The Office Contributes To A Much Larger Environmental Issue
According to research, most offices today produce tons of paper waste each year despite the advancement of technology, and the shift from tradition record-keeping methods. Most of this paper waste end in landfills, but some companies make the effort to recycle.
There are various forms of approach to recycling but one of the most effective methods is to use paper shredding services, who not only ensure your paper documents are safely destroyed but ensure they waste reaches recycling companies. To have more faith in this approach, companies need to have a better understanding of the benefits of recycling.
Why Recycling Is Important
First, did you know that over 75% of all company waste could be recycled? The more effort you make the more benefits you enjoy. As a company, some of the main benefits of recycling your waste paper and other materials include:
- Safeguard the environment: The extraction of raw materials results to the pollution of land, water and air. In turn, this destroys habitats, and living becomes difficult. By recycling waste papers and other materials, you reduce the need for extraction of raw materials. You thus prevent dangerous pollution and save habitats.
- Conserve energy: No doubt, energy consumption is a huge problem in many companies today especially due to its scarcity. Even though recycling waste paper does not directly save your company’s energy consumption, it has an overall impact. It takes less energy to make products using recycled materials than raw materials. Conserving energy also means that fewer gases are released into the air thus reducing the effects of global warming.
- Save resources: Recycling as much as you can also means you can be able to save resources that would have been used as raw materials. You also reduce the overall waste that ends up in landfills, which prevents the contamination of land and the production of the harmful gas, methane.
What Happens To The Paper Waste You Recycle?
The first concern for companies that wish to recycle their paper is what happens to it when it is loaded on to the recycle truck and carried away. Well, first, it is wise to recycle your paper via shredding companies. This ensures that all the company records are safely destroyed including any sensitive information before the shredding service can ship the waste to a recycling company.
Once the paper waste gets to the recycling facility, they sort the paper into three main grades, which are newspaper/magazines, mixed paper/cardboard, and brown cardboard. The facility bales the brown cardboard before it sends it for reprocessing. The other two grades go to the reprocessors in their loose form. The next stage of the process is to make a pulp by adding water. The experts then screen the pulp to remove all contaminants such as staples, paper clips, glues and ink. When they are satisfied that the pulp is clean, they can now turn it into a new product. The entire process takes as little as 7 days, and you have a new product in the market.