InterALIA, September 2004

Reduce, reuse, recycle

It's not easy being green, but it's not that hard either, as Benita Wheeler discovers.

Hayley Gamble is a library officer at the Drug and Alcohol Services Council and is currently the chair of their internal Environmental Advisory Group.

This group has existed since 2000, and came into being as a result of the need to address Environmental Responsibility Standards during a Quality Accreditation Process. At the same time some staff members were running a recycling program and wanted to do more.

The goals of the group initially were to meet the standards for the Quality Accreditation. These related to safe waste management, improving energy efficiency and waste minimisation in both workplace operations and purchasing of resources, and putting a comprehensive recycling program in place and be a model of environmental responsibility to its consumers and the community.

The Environmental Advisory Group has implemented a number of changes across the organisation, including:

• Changing from plastic to paper disposable cups for clients and visitors and encouraging staff to use their own mugs instead of disposable.
• Using 50 per cent and 35 per cent recycled paper in all offices, including the library.
• Recycling white paper waste. They are currently looking at changing provider to further decrease environmental impact and reduce costs.
• Using the free council kerbside recycling program to recycle cardboard boxes, white and yellow pages, cans, tins and bottles (from the staff lunch room).
• DASC Library is a trial site for the use of fibre-based cleaning products instead of chemical alternatives.
• The information technology department install all new computers with the energy-saving function activated to reduce use of power from electrical items not in use.
• DASC Library has a photocopier with an energy-saving function when not in use, and turns itself off altogether after a certain number of hours without use.

The environmentally-friendly changes have made very little impact on the running costs of the department so far.

'We previously had a paper recycling program in place. We are currently planning to change to another provider which will actually reduce our costs in that area.' The current provider take all grades of paper and cardboard in the same bin which means it is all recycled into cardboard - not much resale value in that - whereas the proposed new provider asks customers to keep white paper separate from coloured paper and cardboard. The white paper is then recycled back into paper and re-sold; hence they have the flexibility to lower collection costs.

When you consider the cost of paying for normal waste collection to take away waste including paper and cardboard, implementing a recycling program will not greatly add to that cost.

DASC use the council kerbside recycling for large boxes, tins, cans etcetera. Just as for household recycling, this service is provided free by the council.

'We purchase paper cups for clients and the paper is more expensive than the plastic but by cutting out disposable cup use altogether for staff, we have saved some money by not having to replenish stock as often', said Hayley.

The recycled paper costs have varied since the program began: 'When we started ordering 50 per cent recycled white paper for use throughout the whole organisation, there was very little price difference between that and the ordinary white office paper. However we recently started to notice a price increase, so have changed to a new brand of 35 per cent recycled which is cheaper.'

Anyone who uses fibre-based cleaning products knows that they are not cheap. DASC has not implemented their use throughout the organisation yet. The library is a trial site and has two gloves - one for dusting and a kitchen-grease glove which can be used to get sticky marks off surfaces without having to use spray and wipe or other chemicals. Hayley explains 'as the products generally last between two to three years, they tend to 'recoup' their value by not having to purchase chemicals. And then there is the OHSW angle to consider where certain people - especially asthmatics - can have reactions to domestic chemicals used on site. If you remove the cause of allergic reactions, you reduce the amount of sick leave taken by staff - an obvious economic benefit'.

The energy saving methods cost very little. Ensuring that information technology staff turn on the energy-saving feature of new computers takes very little of their time (just a few extra mouse clicks) and doesn't cost anything. It can greatly reduce running costs by ensuring that idle machinery is not consuming great quantities of power.

As for photocopiers, Hayley said 'You don't need to specifically go out and buy new photocopiers with energy-saving features. When your old copiers die or the lease runs out, simply replace them with an energy-saving alternative (I think most new machines now have this feature as standard)'.

The library is planning to purchase a 'newish' plastic book covering called Naturecover which is 100 per cent biodegradable under compost conditions.

Hayley said that 'most staff participate by sorting their paper for recycling and washing out used cans - on the whole it has been well-received'.

The Environmental Advisory Group is continuing to monitor performance in meeting their goals and quality standards, and is always searching for new ways to lower the environmental impact of the organisation. Hayley would be glad to talk to others who want to 'green' their workplaces.