Richmond businesses can cut their trash bill by more than 13% percent, particularly offices and restaurants, if they start recycling.
No concrete figures exist about how many businesses recycle, but interviews and a driving tour of suburban office parking lots and downtown alleys suggest it’s not exactly popular (despite endless headlines about “going green”) One likely reason: cost. Unlike residents in Henrico County and in the City of Richmond, who don’t pay anything extra to recycle, businesses are on their own to find and retain recycling haulers.
Until this past summer, there were few incentives for businesses to recycle anything other than cardboard, which, thanks to its unwieldy nature, takes up its unfair share of space in pay-by-the-cubic-yard dumpsters. Major haulers Allied Waste and Waste Management offer recycling programs, but they can cost more than tossing everything in the dumpster – and neither company recycles glass.
Enter Chesapeake based TFC Recycling over the summer. As the contractor servicing Central Virginia Waste Management Authority, the company already handles all residential recycling in Henrico and Richmond. They offer a single-stream system where all materials, including glass, can be dumped into a container that is then hauled to and sorted in Chester. And the best part is it costs less than what Allied and WM charge for business recycling.
Going green is finally more than a PR stunt. Companies can cut 13% off their trash bill, or about $26 a month if the company has a contract with Waste Management for once-a-week pickup of an eight-cubic-yard trash dumpster (generally holds 56 30-gallon trash bags). Savings are slightly less if the trash hauling contract is with Allied Waste.
How is this possible?
If a company can divert half its trash from the dumpster to the recycling can, it could downsize to a 4-cubic-yard trash can, which costs $138 from Waste Management. An eight-cubic-yard recycling bin picked up every-other-week costs $40 with TFC. (Remember, only half the first dumpster’s materials are diverted each week, so every-other week pickup should be adequate.) That puts the total costs at $178 per month, $26 less than the $204 Waste Management charges per month for the larger can.
Most offices that don’t currently recycle should be able to divert 50% of their trash from the dumpster to the recycling bin with little disruption. The average office worker disposes of 1.5 pounds of paper waste per day. Around 70% of office waste is recyclable paper.
“It used to be everybody had a desk-side trash bin,” said Ed Farmer, vice president of business development at TFC Recycling. “Now you can sit at a desk and most everything you handle – junk mail, paper, plastic water bottles – it can all be recycled. People now have a desk-side recycle bin and a trash container in the break room.”
TFC anticipates lowering prices for its recycling program as more businesses sign up and economies of scale begin to take affect. Meanwhile the market for recycled material, which currently helps offset the cost of the program, will likely continue to improve, Farmer said. Currently, aluminum is the most valuable material.
To be sure, there are difficulties involved with implementing a recycling program, especially at small businesses that have little clout with trash haulers. Among the difficulties:
Businesses have to set up new contracts, which can be tricky if rates are already locked in, says Steve Coe with the Virginia Department of Environmental Control. There are no state incentives for business recycling, Coe said, other than for used oil furnaces and a 10% tax credit if companies buy a bailer used for cardboard recycling. Changing workplace habits takes time, office managers say, and there’s always the challenge of where to place a new can. For businesses downtown, space in alleys can be tight as it is. In the suburbs, county zoning regulations require units to be within dumpster corrals, according to Steve Yob, Henrico’s director of solid waste removal.
Salespersons at TFC, Allied Waste and WM all say they’ve handled more calls in the last six months from business people considering adding recycling. None could quantify how much more.
But Brian Meditto, a property manager with Highwoods at Innsbrook, said none of his tenants are demanding recycling bins.
“It’s up to each building owner,” he said. “They charge it back to the tenants, but with 100-plus buildings and different property groups, to coordinate all of that (can be tricky).
Matt Simmons, owner of Capital Ale House, said he’s tried to get glass recycling (although most of the beer the bar serves is in draft form), but no hauler was interested. He already recycles cardboard.
“Most of our staff is very young, and it’s like that at most restauruants,” Simmons said. “They’re very into being green. So we’d love to be able to participate in recycling.”
The City of Richmond did not return phone calls about the volume of recyclable material collected or the city’s interest in assisting with business recycling.
Links for office recycling:
Virginia DEQ guide for businesses
http://www.deq.state.va.us/recycle/documents/recyclingmanualtextalltogether_000.pdf
Read more:
http://www.fastcompany.com/about/recycle.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/50-ways-to-green-your-business.html
Richmond businesses can cut their trash bill by more than 13% percent, particularly offices and restaurants, if they start recycling.
No concrete figures exist about how many businesses recycle, but interviews and a driving tour of suburban office parking lots and downtown alleys suggest it’s not exactly popular (despite endless headlines about “going green”) One likely reason: cost. Unlike residents in Henrico County and in the City of Richmond, who don’t pay anything extra to recycle, businesses are on their own to find and retain recycling haulers.
Until this past summer, there were few incentives for businesses to recycle anything other than cardboard, which, thanks to its unwieldy nature, takes up its unfair share of space in pay-by-the-cubic-yard dumpsters. Major haulers Allied Waste and Waste Management offer recycling programs, but they can cost more than tossing everything in the dumpster – and neither company recycles glass.
Enter Chesapeake based TFC Recycling over the summer. As the contractor servicing Central Virginia Waste Management Authority, the company already handles all residential recycling in Henrico and Richmond. They offer a single-stream system where all materials, including glass, can be dumped into a container that is then hauled to and sorted in Chester. And the best part is it costs less than what Allied and WM charge for business recycling.
Going green is finally more than a PR stunt. Companies can cut 13% off their trash bill, or about $26 a month if the company has a contract with Waste Management for once-a-week pickup of an eight-cubic-yard trash dumpster (generally holds 56 30-gallon trash bags). Savings are slightly less if the trash hauling contract is with Allied Waste.
How is this possible?
If a company can divert half its trash from the dumpster to the recycling can, it could downsize to a 4-cubic-yard trash can, which costs $138 from Waste Management. An eight-cubic-yard recycling bin picked up every-other-week costs $40 with TFC. (Remember, only half the first dumpster’s materials are diverted each week, so every-other week pickup should be adequate.) That puts the total costs at $178 per month, $26 less than the $204 Waste Management charges per month for the larger can.
Most offices that don’t currently recycle should be able to divert 50% of their trash from the dumpster to the recycling bin with little disruption. The average office worker disposes of 1.5 pounds of paper waste per day. Around 70% of office waste is recyclable paper.
“It used to be everybody had a desk-side trash bin,” said Ed Farmer, vice president of business development at TFC Recycling. “Now you can sit at a desk and most everything you handle – junk mail, paper, plastic water bottles – it can all be recycled. People now have a desk-side recycle bin and a trash container in the break room.”
TFC anticipates lowering prices for its recycling program as more businesses sign up and economies of scale begin to take affect. Meanwhile the market for recycled material, which currently helps offset the cost of the program, will likely continue to improve, Farmer said. Currently, aluminum is the most valuable material.
To be sure, there are difficulties involved with implementing a recycling program, especially at small businesses that have little clout with trash haulers. Among the difficulties:
Businesses have to set up new contracts, which can be tricky if rates are already locked in, says Steve Coe with the Virginia Department of Environmental Control. There are no state incentives for business recycling, Coe said, other than for used oil furnaces and a 10% tax credit if companies buy a bailer used for cardboard recycling. Changing workplace habits takes time, office managers say, and there’s always the challenge of where to place a new can. For businesses downtown, space in alleys can be tight as it is. In the suburbs, county zoning regulations require units to be within dumpster corrals, according to Steve Yob, Henrico’s director of solid waste removal.
Salespersons at TFC, Allied Waste and WM all say they’ve handled more calls in the last six months from business people considering adding recycling. None could quantify how much more.
But Brian Meditto, a property manager with Highwoods at Innsbrook, said none of his tenants are demanding recycling bins.
“It’s up to each building owner,” he said. “They charge it back to the tenants, but with 100-plus buildings and different property groups, to coordinate all of that (can be tricky).
Matt Simmons, owner of Capital Ale House, said he’s tried to get glass recycling (although most of the beer the bar serves is in draft form), but no hauler was interested. He already recycles cardboard.
“Most of our staff is very young, and it’s like that at most restauruants,” Simmons said. “They’re very into being green. So we’d love to be able to participate in recycling.”
The City of Richmond did not return phone calls about the volume of recyclable material collected or the city’s interest in assisting with business recycling.
Links for office recycling:
Virginia DEQ guide for businesses
http://www.deq.state.va.us/recycle/documents/recyclingmanualtextalltogether_000.pdf
Read more:
http://www.fastcompany.com/about/recycle.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/50-ways-to-green-your-business.html