Recycling

The following excerpt is from IREM’s publication, A Practical Guide to Green Real Estate Management (IREM © 2009): 

If cats have nine lives, then aluminum, glass, paper materials and most plastics have a similar longevity. Don’t confuse the product’s useful life with the material’s useful life! Materials are durable and long lasting, and although the current ability for the product to meet your immediate need has reached its end, the material’s usefulness has not. 

With this understanding, it’s easy to see why recycling is an important waste management practice. So how do you set up a program? Your first move is to do a little research on recycling services in your area—and now that you’re getting more familiar with the materials in your waste stream, you will be able to better assess what type of recycling services you need. Your current waste hauler might provide these services, but another company that specializes in recycling might be a less expensive or more effective option. Contact your current hauler and others in your area to find a service that best fits each building in your portfolio. At a minimum, ask the following questions (from EPA’s “How to Set Up a Recycling Program”): 

• What materials do you collect?
• Do you…
• Provide single stream or multi-stream (commingled) collection?
• Pay us for our recyclables? How do you calculate their value?
• Provide collection containers?
• Pick up by request, or is there a pickup schedule? 

Ask some additional questions if this is your current waste hauler:

• Do you charge for recycling collection?
• Do you offer a package deal for waste and recycling collection?
• Will there be a lower price for waste collection if I use your recycling services? 

If a pickup service is not available, look for drop-off recycling centers in your area. Once you have found a service that fits your needs, it’s time to decide on some logistics. 

Number of Containers 

How many containers do you need, and how much total storage capacity? Based on what the waste hauler told you, do you need to separate all materials or can glass, aluminum, and plastic be commingled in one recycling container (single-stream)? The waste hauler can give you information on appropriate container numbers and sizes. 

Location 

The location of each container is very important—containers need to be convenient for your tenants to access and for staff or haulers to empty. At a minimum, place recycling containers next to other waste containers in common spaces such as kitchens and copy rooms. In an office setting, also place smaller recycling containers for paper at every desk or near a group of work spaces. The contents can be deposited in larger containers at the end of the day. However, bear in mind that having a large number of recycling containers can make them difficult to manage, so locate containers strategically. 

Education 

Tenants need to know about your recycling program, how easy it is, what materials will be recycled, whether the materials are separated or commingled, where the containers will be located, and their role in this program. Explain how this fits into your overall environmental initiative (and probably theirs as well) and how their participation will determine its success. If they feel like an integral part of the program, they will be more likely to participate. 

Provide picture identifications and specific listings of recyclable materials by each set of containers, and send similar information to tenants via e-mail periodically to keep it fresh in their minds. If your recycling service provides multi-stream collection, it is very important that materials aren’t mixed. Make sure that your tenants understand what materials are acceptable for each recycling container by labeling each distinctly. Commingled or single-stream collection does not necessarily require separate containers and labels, but it does require a descriptive list of what is recyclable and what is not. 

Monitoring and Communication 

If you find that people are not participating, ask why. Most people just forget or make a subconscious decision to toss their recyclables in the wrong container. If the recycling program has been set up effectively, it isn’t really a question of motivation or effort—it’s more a matter of simply reminding tenants to make that subconscious decision more conscious. One way to keep it in their heads: communicate the results of the recycling program on a monthly basis by posting results in a public area or including them in a newsletter. Show them that their split second decision to discard something in the right container does make a difference.