Moving Office: Tips for Recycling and Clearing Office Waste

Sep 1st 2011

Moving offices is a stressful and time consuming process – and there’s a lot to think about. One thing you always find is that there is a lot of waste. So what do you do with it? It’s tempting in the rush and bustle of an office move to just throw everything away. But this approach is a mistake – not only is it bad environmental practice , but it can also be very costly. The price of disposing regular waste is now often more expensive than recycling on the same scale – for your business and for your local council. Also, the amount of money recouped from reselling some resources, or saved from giving away large items which would otherwise have to be shipped to the dump, can be huge.

Moving Office: The Process

Make responsibilities clear – Have a clear system in place for your recycling. As an usual amount of litter will be handled, it’s important to know who is responsible for the various parts of the process. This will not only speed things up, but will also present a clear set of actions for everyone, during a very stressful and confusing time.

Plan – The best way to organise the process is to make a plan. This can let you outline the responsibilities and processes mention above, and find out lots of useful information – for example, where you can recycle certain items, particularly electrical goods and batteries, and the location of shops or charities that take second-hand items. Most importantly, a plan means you can prepare for the handling or disposal of confidential materials.

Start early – Starting a move early is a good idea for many reasons: it allows proper planning, gives you time to make any necessary arrangements, leaves time to deal with any surprises, and generally makes the whole process less of a nightmare.

Consistency – Make sure there is as little disruption for your clients and customers as possible – you don’t want an office move to cost your business. Partly, this comes down to good planning – the less disruptive the process of moving office is for you and your employees, the less disruptive it will be for anyone who deals with your company. But there are other measures that can be used – for example, a temporary loosening of flexible/ remote working policies to allow a more consistent workflow and points of contact, informing clients in advance about the move, and setting up interim measures such as virtual offices, to keep on top of your correspondence. If you’re in the City, using serviced offices in London can be a great way to keep work going while your normal offices are running with limited capacity or are simply out of action.

Disposal and Recycling – Clearing Office Waste

Sell it – There are a number of places that you can sell old office equipment. Going down the more traditional route, you could try advertising your items in classified ads, either in print publications or online. Trade-It, a classified ads website for people in the South-West of England, provides a good tool for finding out the ordinary selling price of various items. This is a good basis for working out your asking price. Online, bidding and community sites are always good places to head to – eBay, Gumtree and Amazon Marketplace.

Recycling can be a great way of clearing office waste.
Photo by Ramsey County Minnesota on Flickr.

Recycle it – Recycling can normally be done through your ordinary office recycling scheme. For larger quantities, contact you local council, who will help you sort out a low-cost solution for clearing office waste. More environmentally destructive materials, such as electronic goods and chemicals, have specific laws governing their disposal or reuse – again, contacting your council can be an easy way to get clear advice.

For information on environmental law for business, including recycling and waste disposal, check out NetRegs. This is a website run by the Environment Agency for England and Wales, as well as SEPA and NIEA, which provide advice on environmental matters for SMEs. WRAP also provides excellence guidance to businesses on these matter.

Redistribute it – Before throwing out or selling equipment or resources, put it back into the resource store before the move (if it is in suitable condition), or send around an email to see if anyone else in the company wants any of it. You’d be surprised at what some people can find a use for!

Freecycle is another great way to give away old equipment. You simply post a message to a regional group and wait for a response from someone who wants your item and will collect it. Take a look here to find your nearest group.

Have you moved office recently? What advice would offer to other businesses? Let us know in the comments section below.